October 12 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it will provide a loan of up to 20 million euro ($23.1 million) to support the investment programme of Bulgarian copper products manufacturer Sofia Med.
The senior secured loan will have a tenor of up to seven years, the EBRD said in a statement last week.
The proceeds of the loan will be used to finance Sofia Med's 2020-2022 capital expenditure (CapEx) programme, worth a total of 27 million euro, which entails capacity increase for manufacturing of copper and copper alloy strips, to be used for e-mobility and renewable energy applications, the EBRD said.
"The project involves significant CapEx investment, which includes adding two new bell annealing furnaces increasing the annealing throughput capacity from 68,000 to 98,000 tonnes per annum, as well as a new cold rolling unit, increasing the capacity from 100,000 to 170,000 tonnes per annum," the EBRD added.
In 2019, the EBRD said that it has extended a 25 million euro loan to Sofia Med, which the company will mainly use to develop new products. Several commercial banks are extending parallel financing as part of an 85 million euro long-term joint financing package, the EBRD said at the time.
Sofia Med, which exports 95% of its output, is a producer of a wide range of rolled and extruded copper and copper alloy products such as sheets, strips, plates, circles, disks, bare and plated copper bus bars, rods, profiles, components, and wire that are used in a wide variety of building and industrial applications. The company is situated in the capital city Sofia, on a 250,000 sq m area and has three production units - foundry, rolling and extrusion mills, according to information published on the company's website.
Sofia Med is a subsidiary of Greek-based aluminium and copper processing company ElvalHalcor, which is part of Viohalco, a Belgium-based holding company that consolidates leading metal processing companies across Europe.
($ = 0.8653 euro)