At the recent Ukraine Recovery Conference, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Ukrainian government agreed to jointly mobilise a new financing package for Ukrainian electricity, gas and hydropower companies, totalling 600 million euros in the form of loans and grants from international donors (21 June).
At the conference, EBRD’s President, Odile Renaud-Basso signed three Memoranda of Understanding with Ukraine’s Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal on mobilising 200 million euros for the electricity transmission company Ukrenergo, 200 million euros for the gas company Naftogaz and 200 million for the hydropower company Ukrhydroenergo.
In terms of the hydropower financing package, 50 million euros will be liquidity funding to keep the company resilient, while the remaining 150 million euros will be used to rehabilitate two hydropower plants close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP).
The funding for Ukrenergo, providing liquidity linked to market reforms, adds to a total of 520 million euros already provided by the EBRD since the start of the Russian invasion.
The finance for Naftogaz will support the company in replenishing its strategic reserves. It follows 300 million euros lent in the past year, part of a package of 500 million euros with donor support.
“Naftogaz has also been improving its governance and, after difficulties in the past, is finalising the restructuring of its bonds – we stand ready to support them further,” said the EBRD’s Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, Matteo Patrone.
The EBRD is Ukraine’s biggest institutional investor.
