IFC to consider USD 25 mln loan to Astarta

The board of International Financial Corporation (IFC) is planning to consider on May 30 issuing a working capital loan of USD 25 mln to Ukraine’s largest sugar producer Astarta (AST PW). The facility is directed towards financing Astarta’s general working capital needs, according to IFC. The lender believes the loan will help Astarta “to purchase crops from local farmers during the harvest season, when the availability of crops is at their peak and prices are normally the lowest.”

The IFC already provided a working capital loan to Astarta in October 2015 worth USD 35 mln, primarily aimed at financing the purchase of soybeans during the harvest.

Alexander Paraschiy: The continued cooperation of Astarta with the IFC supports its image as a reliable borrower. If the IFC board approves the loan, it can arrive to Astarta by late June, we estimate. This will be just in time to gain from excess supply of just harvested crops from farmers, unlike the previous IFC loan, which seems to have arrived too late, when the harvesting season in Ukraine had largely finished.