EBRD to provide EUR 7 mln financing to Grain Alliance for withstanding Covid19-caused crisis

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering the provision of a senior secured loan of up to EUR 7 mln to Baryshevska Grain Company LLC, the main operating company of the Grain Alliance Group.

The project is pending for a final review.

"The loan will be used to finance the working capital needs of the Group amid the adverse impact of Covid-19 on its business," the message reads.

As pointed in the project objectives, the loan will support the Group's liquidity and help it withstand the Covid19-caused crisis. Therefore, it will help the company to preserve its capital expenditure plans, which were part of the original project between the Bank and Grain Alliance approved in 2019.

The project will help to ensure that Grain Alliance preserves its ability to meet the transition impact that was expected to be achieved as part of the original project approved in 2019. The original transition impact objectives are as follows:

• Integrated: Improvement in infrastructure for logistics, storage and transportation for export facilitation especially for small third-party farmers.
• Green: Installation of two biomass-fired grain dryers with a total capacity of 24 MW utilising sunflower residues, including husk, dust and broken kernels generated during the operational activity of the Group.

In late 2019, the EBRD provided the company with a EUR 10 mln credit facility for the increase of grain receiving capacity and purchase of new agricultural machinery.