The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a US$50mn loan facility to the Kazakhstani beverage producer, RG Brands, its first direct financing for an agribusiness company in the country.

The loan, which carries a tenor of seven years, is intended to facilitate the completion of a new, advanced production plant on the outskirts of the capital Almaty. It is envisaged that this will increase capacity in RG Brands' core product lines through the construction of a single, fully automated facility and establish an improved logistic platform to enable future growth.

"As demand for high-quality products is soaring, we are confident that the new plant will provide the company with the much-needed springboard to increase the volume and efficiency of its production,” comments Andre Kuusvek, EBRD director for Kazakhstan.

RG Brands was established in 1994 and is now considered to be one of the forerunners in the Kazakhstani beverage industry. It has diversified from distributing imported consumer goods into the production of its own brands of soft drinks and tea in Almaty, aided by the bottling franchise obtained from Pepsi in 1998.