EBRD to provide 1.5 bln ruble loan to Rosvodokanal Group
MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Russia's Rosvodokanal Group signed a second loan agreement on Wednesday for the provision of 1.5 billion rubles to the latter company.
The EBRD's first vice-president Varel Freemen said at an Interfax press conference that "this is our second agreement. We will provide a total of 3 billion rubles to Rosvodokanal [including the first loan]."
The loan will be available for 13 years.
It was reported in August that Rosvodokanal plans to raise 3 billion rubles in bank financing, 50% of which would be provided by the EBRD. The other half was to come from a Russian financial institution.
The funds will likely go to the modernization of Rosvodokanal's infrastructure in Kaluga, Tyumen, Orenburg, Barnaul, Tver, Omsk and Krasnodar.
EBRD's first loan, at the same amount of 1.5 billion rubles, was raised in 2008. The loan agreement's terms foresaw a three-year grace period (which would only end in 2011), during which the company would have to return the interest and not the principle.
Jean-Patrick Marquet, the EBRD's director for municipal and infrastructural projects, said that the bank would invest 5 billion rubles in Russia's municipal sector in 2011.
Including the agreement signed on Wednesday, the EBRD has invested 2 billion rubles in Russia since the start of 2011, said Natalia Khanjenkova, the bank's managing director for Russia.
"With the signing of this project, our bank's investment in 2011 in Russia [this, loans and capital investments] has already gone over 2 billion euro. We are continuing to work and this will be a bigger amount by year's end," she said.
Rosvodokanal's sales revenue came to $429 million in 2010 compared to $379 million in 2009 while net profit increased from $30 million to $38 million. Alfa-Group owns 70.3% in Rosvodokanal through Ventrelt Holding.
