IFC approves 60 mln euro loan to Soufflet for capital investment in Russia, five other countries
MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) - The board of directors of International Finance Corporation (IFC) has approved a loan of 60 million euro to French grain processer Groupe Soufflet to finance capital investment in six countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Serbia, Poland and Ukraine.
The overall cost of the program is 200 million euro, the IFC said in materials.
Based on information disclosed by the IFC at the end of May, financing requests from purely Russian projects have been processed much more slowly in recent months. Two such projects - a Globus project to develop a chain of hypermarkets in Russia and a Rusfinance Bank project to finance the Green Car program - have yet to be reviewed by the board of directors, although their reviews were originally scheduled for June.
Soufflet, a privately held grain trading group, has 42 factories in Europe, Asia and North America. Soufflet is a global leader in the malt market. It has operations in 17 countries, including Russia.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said in April that it might provide 20 million euro for Soufflet's program to build silos in Eastern Europe.
Soufflet's Russian subsidiary - Soufflet Agro Rus - posted a net loss of 21.7 million rubles in 2012 on revenue totaling 2.28 billion rubles.
