EBRD grants $25 million to Borusan Cat’s Kazakhstan ops

ISTANBUL

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved an additional loan of $25 million awarded to Borusan Cat, a vehicle distribution company in partnership with U.S. giant Caterpillar, to be used as working capital of the company’s operations in Kazakhstan.

With the new agreement, the total financial support provided by the EBRD for the company’s operations in Kazakhstan has reached $50 million. The bank had provided a $25-million loan to the company in December last year.
Borusan Cat’s successful management during the COVID-19 crisis was effective in awarding the additional loan defined as short-term working capital, the EBRD said.

“We have successfully managed this period with the priority of protecting our team, our customers, our business and the society,” Borusan Cat’s CEO Özgür Günaydın said in a statement.

“We enjoy the advantage of being a company that has completed its digital transformation process very early, and we have witnessed that we can carry on our business in all our operations areas without being affected even by increasing the volume in certain segments. We see that this approach reflected in our business results is also welcomed by the EBRD,” he added.

The EBRD’s investments in Turkey reached almost $1 billion in the first half of 2020, with banking, energy and logistics sector benefiting the most.

The bank’s financing in its region of 38 countries, which was 3.7 billion euros ($4.18 billion) in the same period last year, reached 5 billion euros in the first half of 2020.

Since 2009, the EBRD has invested 12.4 billion euros through over 300 projects in Turkey.

The EBRD’s 7 billion-euro portfolio in Turkey is the largest among the 38 economies where the bank invests.