EBRD loans $25m to Moldovan agri giant

The CEE region development financier approved a $25m loan for a Moldovan grain commodities trader and sunflower oil producer.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Central and Eastern Europe-focused development bank, has continued its commitment to agribusiness with a $25 million loan to a Moldovan grain trader and sunflower oil producer, Trans-Oil Group.

The company will use the debt financing to expand its grain terminal in the Moldovan port of Giurgiulești on the Danube river, and to acquire and modernise a grain storage facility in the neighbouring port of Reni, in Ukraine. Trans-Oil hopes to bolster its grain collection by five times the current rate.

The investment is targeted at improving the grain business in neighbouring Ukraine, which counts grain as one of its primary exports.

The EBRD is committed to improving Ukraine’s access to finance and EBRD Agribusiness head Gilles Mettetal announced the bank had $1 billion of willing capital for the country.

“The EBRD is delighted to continue its support to Trans-Oil Group, which is a Moldovan commodity trader able to compete with regional and global players,” said Mettetal said. “We are contributing to the creation of an improved infrastructure for grain trading in Moldova and Ukraine, which will also benefit local farmers and other exporters, promote regional integration and forge closer investment ties between the two countries.”

The EBRD has provided debt financing to Trans-Oil Group three times in the last 10 years, most recently in 2013. The group also received a $12 million loan in 2009.

Trans-Oil also attracted a $70 million loan investment from the International Finance Corporation in 2012.