Press release

Ljubljana, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 – SIJ Acroni and SIJ Metal Ravne closed a new EUR 240 million syndicated loan for SIJ Acroni and SIJ Metal Ravne paving the way for future sustainable development 

On March 14th SIJ Acroni and SIJ Metal Ravne signed a five-year syndicated loan to refinance the existing loan portfolio and ensure long-term financing for investment programs aimed at production efficiency, environmental projects and energy efficiency. During syndication seven banks joined the transaction with UniCredit Group acting as coordinator, mandated lead arranger, documentation agent as well as facility and security agent. The consortium of banks besides UniCredit comprised of NLB d.d., European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), SKB d.d., Nova KBM d.d., ERSTE AG and Addiko Bank d.d.

Igor Malevanov, Member of the Management Board and CFO at SIJ d.d., commented: "This new loan ensures both steel companies long-term funding, enabling further financial strength, growth and development. All banks recognised SIJ Group as strong financial partner, with proven operational results, strong profitability and robust business model”.

Frederic Lucenet, EBRD Director, Manufacturing and Services, said:We are very pleased to sign the consortium supporting SIJ’s investments which will further strengthen the company’s performance and boost their effort to improve resource efficiency. Better and more efficient use of resources in industry does not only make sense commercially, but is also essential for the environment. This is also fully in line with the EBRD’s strategic Green Economy Transition approach under which we aim to increase our green investments to 40 per cent of our annual business volume by 2020.”

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The SIJ Group is the largest Slovenian vertically integrated metallurgical group, whose products occupy leading positions on the European and global niche steel markets. The Group consists of two core business areas – metallurgical (core business) and food processing industry (acquisition of Perutnina Ptuj Group), almost 50 subsidiaries in Europe, US and Asia, and around 7,200 employees. In 2016, the SIJ Group generated sales revenues of EUR 842.7 million, an operating profit (EBITDA) of EUR 127.1 million and a net profit of EUR 51.3 million.

The EBRD is a multilateral bank committed to the development of market-oriented economies and the promotion of private and entrepreneurial initiative in more than 30 countries from Morocco to Mongolia and from Estonia to Egypt. The Bank is owned by 65 countries, the EU and the EIB.