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An €11mn loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will help a Turkish-owned bottling plant in northwest Russia introduce lightweight bottles on the Russian market at the same time as doubling its annual production capacity.


Of this amount, €
7mn has been syndicated to ABN Amro under an EBRD A/B loan structure whereby the EBRD remains the lender of record for the full amount.


The seven-year loan will enable OJSC Pokrov Glass Plant, a Russian subsidiary of the Turkish company Anadolu Cam, build a second furnace. This is part of a major plan to modernise the works which were bought last March. In September, the EBRD lent €
7.9mn to finance the first phase of the restructuring plan.


Hans Christian Jacobsen, director of the agribusiness team at the EBRD, says the project will support Anadolu Cam’s strategy in the region and should stimulate competition, acting as a catalyst for similar investment and innovation by other glass manufacturers in northwest Russia.


Teoman Yenigun, chairman of the board of directors of Anadolu Cam, says the EBRD’s continued support is helping the company expand in the Russian market and take full advantage of the rapidly growing demand for beer bottles in the country.


Anadolu Cam, part of the leading Turkish industrial group Turkiye Sise ve Cam Fabrikalari, has three bottling plants in Turkey and has started to focus on neighbouring countries that show a potential for rapid growth.


The EBRD is the largest single financial investor in Russia, with €
5.5bn committed in 189 projects. Across its 27 countries of operations, the bank has invested €
3.25bn in 222 agribusiness projects.