ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 7. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a senior secured loan of up to $10 million to the group of companies of Atameken-Agro JSC (the Group), one of the largest agricultural holdings in Kazakhstan, Trend reports.
The proceeds of the loan will be used to finance the replacement of the existing agricultural machinery (tractors, harvester-threshers and sprayers).
According to the bank, the project is expected to improve the Group's production efficiency and environmental footprint. The investment in new machinery is also an opportunity for the Group to train workers in more advanced skills relevant for the sector's growth, thus contributing to the development of human capital in the sector.
The total cost of the project is $20 million. The EBRD is financing 50 percent of the project, the rest will be financed by the Group itself.
Atameken-Agro JSC and its subsidiaries (the Group) is a vertically integrated business mainly engaged in crop farming business. It is a large-sized vertically integrated group of companies with a land bank of 441,000 hectares, including 321,000 hectares of arable land area and over 523,000 tonnes of storage capacity.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (EBRD) current project portfolio in Kazakhstan reaches 2.8 billion euros as of October 31, 2023, based on the implementation of 114 active portfolio projects.
Investments in sustainable infrastructure projects account for 70 percent of the overall portfolio (1.97 billion euros). The industry, commerce, and agribusiness sectors also benefit significantly from EBRD's investments, with projects worth approximately 689 million euros making up around 24 percent of the portfolio.
Furthermore, the EBRD's support for the financial sector of Kazakhstan, with investments in financial institutions comprising 5 percent of the portfolio, amounts to 148 million euros.
