Washington D.C., July 10, 2002
—The International Finance Corporation, the private sector development arm of the World Bank, will support the expansion of Russia’s pulp and paper industry with a US$7 million loan to a leading corrugated board manufacturer, ZAO Stora Enso Packaging. The loan will help the company meet the increasing demand for its product and will strengthen its position in the growing corrugated box market in Russia.
IFC’s investment will support the company’s plans to increase its nominal production capacity by 50 percent. IFC has an existing loan of $6 million in the company.
“ZAO Stora Enso Packaging continues to demonstrate world class production standards for Russia’s corrugated board sector,” said Edward Nassim, IFC’s Director for Central and Eastern Europe. “The development of downstream, value-added businesses is fundamental to the growth of the Russian pulp and paper industry. This investment reflects our continued commitment to supporting Russia’s private sector and one of many we intend to support in the coming year,” Mr. Nassim added.
ZAO Stora Enso Packaging, an IFC client, is a subsidiary of Finland-based Stora Enso Oyj, an integrated forest company. ZAO Stora Enso Packaging is located in the Kaluga Region, approximately 100 kilometers south-west of Moscow, in the town of Balabanovo.
The loan to ZAO Stora Enso Packaging marks IFC’s second investment in ZAO Stora Enso and IFC’s seventeenth investment in Russia in less than a year. Since April 2001, IFC has approved more than $282.9 million in a wide range of companies and financial institutions to support Russia’s private sector. The investments have been aimed at building on Russia’s domestic production capacity, improving efficiency, expanding production, developing the banking sector and building Russia’s natural resource industries.
IFC’s mission is to promote sustainable private sector investment in developing countries, helping to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. IFC finances private sector investments in the developing world, mobilizes capital in the international financial markets, and provides technical assistance and advice to governments and businesses. Since its founding in 1956 through the close of the last fiscal year on June 30, 2001, IFC committed more than $31 billion of its own funds and arranged $20 billion in syndications for 2,636 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC's committed portfolio at the end of FY01 was $14.3 billion.