The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has extended a 116 million euros loan to Poland’s Grupa Azoty, a leading producer of chemicals on the Polish and European markets, to help green their operations.
According to the EBRD, the funds will finance investments towards a significant reduction of CO2 emissions at the company’s plants, as well as efficiency improvements and an expansion of research and development activities towards higher value products.
The green investment programme financed with the EBRD loan is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 130,000 tonnes of CO2e each year.
The EBRD loan will be part of a massive investment programme for which an additional 350 million euros and 145 million euros were raised from other lenders earlier this year, the bank said.
Listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of approximately 4.6 billion zloty, Grupa Azoty’s main shareholders are the Polish State Treasury (33 per cent), the fertiliser group Acron (19.47 per cent) and various investment and pension funds. The EBRD has a stake of 2.87 per cent and provided the group with a 150 million zloty loan in 2015.
With 10 sites in Poland and 14,000 employees, Grupa Azoty is Poland’s largest chemical company and the European Union’s second-largest producer of fertilisers.
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