The EBRD is supporting the construction of a greenfield brick plant by Wienerberger Kirpitsch, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wienerberger AG, in Russia with €13.3mn. The bank’s finance consists of a €2.5mn equity investment and a €10.8mn loan to the company. Total project costs are estimated to be €38mn.

Located near the village of Kiprevo, 120km north-east of Moscow, the plant will have an annual production capacity of 120mn brick standard units of facing bricks, or alternatively 220mn brick standard units of hollow bricks. The majority of the production volume is expected to go into residential construction.

Wienerberger Kirpitsch will target the market of the region of Moscow where demand is high and production so far is insufficient. The company will offer high-quality products and plans to gradually increase output and market share in the coming years. The plant is expected to be fully operational at the end of 2007.