Russia: OAO Russky Solod, a subsidiary of Avangard Bank, is to launch its new malting plant in Orlovsk Region, Russia, by the end of the first quarter this year, the president of Avangard Bank, Kirill Minovalov announced on February 2. The construction of this plant was started in November 2003 and is the third malting plant financed by Avangard Bank in the territory of Russian Federation. According to K. Minovalov, now the Bank is developing a project of constructing a fourth plant with a production capacity of 140 thousand tonnes of malt, placed as well in Orlovsk Region. In June 2004 Russky Solod launched its second malting plant in Voronezh region with a production capacity of 100 thousand tonnes per annum. The first malting plant financed by Avangard is already operating in Moscow Region.
OAO Russky Solod has already completed its portfolio of orders for 2005. The company has already signed contracts with the largest beer makers of Russia. Russky Solod as well intends to export a part of its malt to CIS countries. Particularly, a contract with Baltika Brewery has already signed. According to the agreement the malt purchased from Russky Solod will cover about 30% of brewery’s annual needs in malt. K. Minovalov also mentioned that contracts have already been concluded with Efes, Heineken, Vena, Pit, etc. Russky Solod has started its shipments to CIS countries and has delivered a sample lot to Uzbekistan.
In Orlovsk Region a farm designated for barley seeds production was created, which will be able to produce about 14 thousand tonnes of seeds per annum from 2005. The necessary equipment has already been purchased at a cost of US$ 8 million. Exclusive agreements were signed with European suppliers of qualitative barley varieties. These seeds are to be handed to farmers, and will allow to cover about 80% of raw material needed by Russky Solod. With the purpose to finance the production of qualitative barley, a new company “Avangard-Agro” was established in 2004. For the needs of 2004 harvest season Avangard-Agro spent US$ 10 million for 30 combines and 5 tractors and has already signed contracts with John Deer and New Holland for 2005 to acquire another 115 combines and 18 tractors for US$ 30 million. By the end of 2004 Avangard’s investments in barley and malt production totalled about US$ 160 million.
In 2004 OAO Russky Solod took a loan of RUB 500 million from VneshTorgBank. In 2005 the company is to get a loan of at least RUB 1 billion from Russian banks (without taking into consideration the financing from Avangard).
Înapoi
(libra 0.7500 sec.)