Ukrainian cereal producer Lantmännen to receive EBRD loan

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to provide a €3m loan to Ukrainian breakfast cereals producer Lantmännen Axa to support liquidity and working capital needs.

Lantmännen Axa is owned by Sweden’s agribusiness cooperative Lantmännen.

EBRD’s €3m loan is expected to provide financial stability to the company and also help it to implement an investment programme for diversifying its product range while introducing energy efficiency measures and expanding its food manufacturing capacity.

Technical assistance is being provided by the Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund.

This is the second loan that Lantmännen will receive from EBRD since 2018.

The company is currently engaged in the production of food products such as muesli, granola and cereal bars.

The loan to Lantmännen is said to be among EBRD’s priority measures in the country to support large and small local firms get through the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

EBRD noted that its board of directors agreed to expand its response and recovery programme addressing the coronavirus crisis, which would result in the bank’s investments of up to €21bn in the two years.

The main element of the programme, the Resilience Framework, has been increased to €4bn and can be availed by the existing clients.

In January 2019, EBRD agreed to provide a loan of $12.5m to Ukraine’s Nyva Pereyaslavschiny Group for improving pig breeding practices. Funds were used to build a meat-processing factory and meat waste recycling plant, as well as enhance its pig-breeding capacities.

The project also helped the company to minimise greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.