Grain Alliance invests EUR 10 mln of EBRD loan in Slovakia grain hub modernization

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loans Grain Alliance Group EUR 10 mln to modernize and expand the company's land-based export capacity.

In the spring of 2022, the group acquired a grain logistics hub just over Ukraine’s border with Slovakia, in the city of Cierna nad Tisou. The EBRD’s loan will finance an expansion of the Slovak hub to provide transshipment capacity of 400,000 tonnes a year.

"The loan will support the Grain Alliance Group to increase storage capacity, upgrade and automate infrastructure, and buy grain hoppers, locomotives and trucks for secure transport of grains from its Ukrainian elevators to the Slovak hub and onwards to final customers," the Bank says in a statement.

The company announced the purchase of an asset in Slovakia in May.

The loan is in line with the Solidarity Lanes package, a programme established by the European Commission and EU-bordering countries to safeguard global food security and aid Ukraine’s economy, in which the EBRD is investing EUR 300 mln.

The five-year loan will be supported by the donor-funded EBRD Crisis Response Special Fund via a partial guarantee within the EBRD’s resilience package in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. It is also supported by the EBRD’s Shareholder Special Fund (SSF) and Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund.

The EBRD is Ukraine’s biggest institutional investor. Since February, the Bank has committed more than EUR 1 bln and aims to triple that figure by the end of 2023. The EBRD’s primary focus is to support the ‘real’ economy — maintaining energy and food security, restoring rail infrastructure, and supporting trade and the private sector. The EBRD was swift to condemn the Russian invasion and has closed its offices in russia and belarus.

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