Victoria Group (Sojaprotein)

complete

The Bank’s financing will consist of up to EUR 45 million in the form of a senior loan in three tranches: a) up to EUR 30 million for seasonal harvest needs, in particular the procurement of soybean, sunflower and rapeseeds. b) up to EUR 10 million for permanent working capital needs. c) up to EUR 5 million for investments in the area of energy efficiency. The transition impact is derived from increased backward linkages with the farmers as a result of increase quantities of the agricultural commodities to be purchased at the harvest as well as from improved yields of sunflower seeds and soybeans per hectare as a result of the companies’ direct work with farmers. The Bank’s financing, secured by agricultural commodities, supports the government initiative to introduce warehouse receipts legislation in Serbia. Through success of the Project, the Company will further strengthen its corporate governance standards and be in a position to increase financing levels and technical know-how it provides to farmers and cooperatives. Finally, a component of the Project will be related to energy cost savings measures as the crushing industry is capital intensive. Victoria Oil (previously named Mladost Sid) and Sojaprotein, joint-stock companies incorporated in Serbia and 100% and 44.7% respectively owned by the Sponsor Victoria Group. The Sponsor is the biggest processor of soybeans in the region and with combined crushing capacity of 500,000 thousand sunseeds/per annum. EUR 45 million loan consisting from three tranches. EUR 82.55 million. The purchase of sunflower seeds and soybeans is not typically associated with environmental risk. The processing of these seeds may involve some environmental issues. To better understand these risks a member of ESD visited Mladost Sid in May 2006 to conduct a walkthrough review of the facility and to discuss EHS issues with the company. The company confirmed its compliance with environment, health, safety and labour requirements and demonstrated that is has a number of procedures and practices in place to deal with the key issues associated with production. The company has a number of planned actions with regard to environment and will be asked to formalise these in a time-bound environmental action plan to be agreed with the Bank. This will form part of the legal agreement with the company and be monitored on an annual basis. However, if any part of the EBRD's loan is to be committed to Sojaprotein A.D. under this project, an adequate level of environmental due diligence will need to be performed prior to disbursement. None. Branislava Pavlovic, General Director, Sojaprotein Tel: + 381 21 811 620 E-mail: brana@soyaprotein.com