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Brasseries Internationales Holdings receives $15 million loan from EBRD
For expansion and strengthening of operations in South Caucasus
The EBRD is providing a $15 million loan to Brasseries Internationales Holding
(B.I.H.) to support the acquisition of the Kotayk Brewery in Armenia and the
strengthening of B.I.H’s Georgian subsidiary Castel Sakartvelo. B.I.H. is
owned by Citigroup Venture Capital International (“CVCI”), its CEO Mr Jean
Paul Lanfranchi, and other financial investors. CVCI is a leading private
equity investor in growth markets. With forty investment professionals across
the globe, CVCI manages over $3.5 billion in equity investments and committed
capital in Asia, CEE, and Latin America.
B.I.H brews the leading beer brands in Georgia and Armenia, in addition to
brewing Castel beers as a result of its on-going relationship with Groupe
Castel, a French company. Groupe Castel set up the operations in the Caucasus
and invested heavily to create world class facilities and the only breweries
in the region able to produce premium international brands.
Castel Sakartvelo is currently the number 2 player in Georgia, the largest
beer market in the Caucasus. The company intends to strengthen its operations
by upgrading and enlarging its logistics as well as increase its marketing
activities to enhance its market share. In Armenia, Kotayk Brewery is the
market leader, brewing the renowned ‘Kotayk’ brand.
Gilles Mettetal, EBRD Director of the Agribusiness Group, said that the
transaction shows the Bank’s commitment to foster economic transition in the
Caucasus countries by investing in a dynamic sector alongside a private equity
investor. This is a good example of the support the Bank can offer
agribusiness companies in the region with its capacity for longer-term lending.
The EBRD, one of the largest private sector investors in central and Eastern
Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, has to date signed more
than 300 investments totalling more than € 4.3 billion in the region’s
agribusiness sector alone.
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