August 17 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Bank has approved a 14 million euro ($15.9 million) loan to Bulgaria's Agria Group Holding [BUL:A72] for the construction of a port facility on the Black Sea coast, intended for storage, handling and export of agricultural produce, the bank said.
The facility, which will be located near the town of Beloslav, west of the port city of Varna, will have a total annual throughput of 1.0 million tonnes of grain, 160 000 tonnes of liquid cargos and 110 000 tonnes of sunflower meal, the EIB said in a project summary earlier this week.
You can download the 2023 Agriculture industry in Southeast Europe report here
The port facility will also service storage and export operations of other companies, according to the project summary.
The total estimated value of the project is 29 million euro.
Earlier this year, Agria Group Holding said it will invest 3.5 million euro in the construction of new silos at the logistics base of its unit Kristera in the town of Popovo, in northeastern Bulgaria.
Agria Group Holding is currently under investigation by Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition over its acquisition of 100% of local company Kehlibar in 2016.
The regulator has opened proceedings as it was not notified of the transaction, despite the fact that, according to data from the two companies' annual financial statements for 2015, the combined turnover of Agria Group Holding and Kehlibar makes anti-trust clearance mandatory, the Commission for Protection of Competition said last week.
Last year, the EIB provided a 31 million euro loan to Bulgaria’s leading sunflower oil producer and grain trader Oliva to finance the construction of a new sunflower oilseed production plant and storage and logistics facilities, also located near the town of Beloslav, where Agria's new port will be built.
($ = 0.8780 euro)