DLF - Mebelain

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Translated version of this PSD: Russian The EBRD is considering providing a €5 million senior loan to IOOO Mebelain to development a greenfield veneer-faced furniture production plant in Belarus. The Project, being purely private sector operation, is in line with the updated EBRD Country Strategy for Belarus. The key transition impacts for this project include: IOOO Mebelain, a company newly set up by SBA Furniture Group of Lithuania. The EBRD loan, when approved by the EBRD’s Board of Directors, will contribute to finance the construction, equipment and placing into operation of, and the provision of working capital for, a greenfield veneer-faced furniture factory located in the Free Enterprise Zone Mogilov in Eastern Belarus. About €15 million. Categorised B. The Environmental and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) has been undertaken through review of detailed Environmental, Health and Safety, Social questionnaires filled in by all companies of the SBA Furniture Group, supporting documentation and the Group’s official reporting to environmental authorities. The Bank’s environmental specialists also visited the Group’s production sites in Lithuania and the future plant’s site in Belarus. The Borrower is indirectly wholly owned by SBA Furniture Group, largest furniture manufacturers in the Baltic States. The ESDD showed that SBA operations in Lithuania are well managed with a sound environmental, health and safety management system in place. SBA Furniture Group complies with strict requirements from its customers for environmental issues, working conditions and safety that correspond with the Bank’s Performance Requirements. All of the SBA plants in Lithuania are certified to ISO 9001 Quality and ISO 14001 Environmental Management standards, as well as have Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain-of-Custody and Controlled Wood certification ensuring that the wood raw material supplied to the plants is of legal and sustainable origin. The construction of the new furniture plant in Belarus will be mainly associated with temporary noise, dust, traffic disturbance issues. SBA has committed to implement good international E&S management practices in the operation of the plant, similar to those in place at its Lithuanian operations. This involves controlling air emissions (dust, VOC, combustion gases) and implementing waste management measures based on waste minimisation and recycling. The Belarus plant will also require its suppliers to ensure that the key raw materials, namely particleboard and veneer, are manufactured from wood raw material that is of legal and sustainable origin and that particleboard will be E1 classified in accordance with EU standards for free formaldehyde content in the final products. The Company will provide the Bank with annual environmental and social reports and notification on any material accidents or incidents. EBRD has previously conducted a study on the forest sector in Belarus. Project manager Narunas Stasius Tel. +370 686 43335 E-mail: narunas.stasius@sbafurniture.lt