Kiev, Ukraine, May 20, 2013
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is investing in Axzon, a leading Eastern European pork producer, to support the company’s expansion in Ukraine. The investment will also facilitate the construction of new biogas plants in Poland, which will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and showcase the benefits of sustainable agriculture.
IFC is providing Axzon with a financing package of up to €54 million in debt and equity. The company’s expansion will help it tap into Ukraine’s growing – and undersupplied – pork market and create hundreds of jobs in the rural western region of Ivano-Frankivsk. Additionally, IFC’s financing will support the construction of three biogas power plants in Poland, which will turn animal waste into energy. Axzon is the largest producer of biogas-based energy in the country.
“The world’s population is expanding and we as agricultural producers need to satisfy not only a growing need for food products but also a need for energy,” said Tom Axelgaard, Axzon’s Chief Executive Officer. “Together with IFC, we will be able to take further steps to expand and grow.”
This agreement is IFC’s fifth deal in Ukraine’s agribusiness sector so far this financial year.
“Helping Ukraine realize its potential in agribusiness is at the core of IFC’s work here,” said Rufat Alimardanov, IFC’s Regional Head for Ukraine and Belarus. “We hope this project will promote better standards in Ukraine’s meat producing sector and will also showcase the benefits of biogas plants."
Axzon is expected to double its production in Ukraine as it expands. The project will also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Poland and Ukraine. The group is emitting about 44,000 less tons of carbon-dioxide per year than it would without the biogas energy efficiency measures. That is equivalent to saving 93,000 barrels of gasoline per year. The new biogas facilities will cut up to 29,000 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions annually.
Dragon Capital, a leading Ukrainian investment bank, acted as a financial adviser for Axzon on the transaction.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments. In FY12, our investments reached an all-time high of more than $20 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs, spark innovation, and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
About Axzon
Axzon was founded in 1994 in Poland as a successful attempt of Danish farmers to set up a large-scale pig production in the fast growing emerging market to capitalize on the know-how and expertise in pig breeding originated in Denmark. It entered the Ukrainian market in 2003. Axzon is a top-three pork producer both in Poland and Ukraine. Its environmentally friendly operations include pig farming, slaughtering and meat processing, crop growing, feed milling, and biogas production. For more information, visit
http://www.axzon.eu/en/home
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