EBRD allots 42 mln euros to Polish Cersanit for production development in Ukraine, Poland
MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will give a 42-million-euro long-term loan to support operations of the Polish manufacturer of ceramic tiles and plumbing, Cersanit S.A., in Ukraine and Poland.
The loan will compensate the fallout from written off Russian assets, the crisis in Ukraine and the fire at a Cersanit facility in Poland, the Ukrainian media said with the reference to the EBRD press release.
According to the press release, the project envisages larger production of ceramic tiles and plumbing, finalization of investments in the production of large-sized tiles in Ukraine, renovation of an acrylic product factory in Poland, and larger capacity and higher energy efficiency of factories. The total cost of the project is 120 million euros.
These investments not only help the economies of both countries by supporting a dynamically developing manufacturer at the local level as an important element of Ukraine's recovery, but also retain human capital by maintaining key jobs, EBRD Vice-President Alain Pilloux said when he signed the loan agreement with Cersanit in Warsaw. He reaffirmed the EBRD's commitment to funding other investments in Ukraine and its crisis-stricken neighbors.
The loan is provided under the EBRD's Resilience and Livelihoods Framework (RLF).
The EBRD and donors have pledged to provide 3-billion-euro funding to Ukraine in 2022-2023 to support business operations and the economy. Last year, the bank supported Ukraine with 1.7 billion euros and drew another 200 million euros from partners, financial institutions.
Cersanit S.A. is a leading European manufacturer with Polish capital. The company's core activity is the production and sales of products for finishing and equipping bathrooms.
According to the Cersanit website, the group assets include four factories in Poland and one in Germany, Romania and Ukraine each. The company opened a plant in the Zhitomir region of Ukraine in 2009. Its annual rated capacity is 12 million square meters of ceramic tiles and up to 2 million plumbing units.
According to financial reports of LLC Cersanit Invest, the company posted net loss of 964.5 million hryvni and over 2.1 billion hryvni of earnings.
Opendatabot names JSC Cersanit as the company owner and Michał Andrzej Sołowow (Poland) as the beneficiary.