ASTANA, Kazakhstan, November 5. Kazakhstan Railways (Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, KTZ) and French bank Société Générale have signed an agreement on a soft loan for the purchase of electric locomotives, Trend reports.
The parties signed an agreement on the basic terms of financing the purchase of electric locomotives Alstom at the Kazakh-French Business Council in Paris.
The agreement was on the provision of preferential financing at low rates for the purchase of 117 locomotives. The export credit agency of the Ministry of Finance of France, BPI France, will act as a guarantor.
The locomotives will be delivered to Kazakhstan Temir Zholy by 2028. The renewal of the KTZ fleet will have a positive impact on the transportation process.
The purchased electric locomotives will replace the outdated VL-80 locomotives of the 1980 model. The advantages of these locomotives are lower cost, economical use of electricity, high reliability, and reduced maintenance costs.
Société Générale is a French financial conglomerate, together with BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, and Groupe BPCE, making up the “big four” of the banking market of the state. Société Générale was the third largest bank in France and the 20th largest in the world by assets as of 2017. It has been among the globally systemically important banks since 2011.