EBRD provides a 5 mln euro loan to Grupo Industrial Roquet for expanding its operations in Romania

The Spanish group Roquet, producer of hydraulic components, has been provided a 5 million euro loan by EBRD (The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) which will be used to co-finance the development of a greenfield plant in Romania, near Ploiesti.

‘In order to meet rising demand for its products the company has decided to expand its production capacities by opening a new plant. Romania was chosen because of its competitive advantages.’ is explained by a media release of the Bank.

Construction works of the greenfield plant is scheduled to start in April 2014, the production being forecasted to begin next year. In the new factory, Roquet will produce large diameter cylinders used in capital goods sector, namely in agriculture and constructions machinery field.

Grupo Industrial Roquets has four production facilities in Spain where manufactures, amid others hydraulic cylinders, control valves and various components for hydraulic applications. This one will be the first plant the group will open outside Spain, being a first step in expanding its operations abroad.

“This is a giant step to gradually becoming a global player. When we studied various sites for investment we realized that Romania offered many of advantages, among them a very positive business atmosphere. The EBRD’s strong support was the decisive factor for our decision to set up our new factory, which also is our first abroad, in Romania. We are confident that from this industrial base near Ploiesti we will be very successful in expanding our product range and market penetration.”, Cipriano Gomez, CEO Roquet Hydraulics explained.

By this loan, EBRD re-affirms its confidence in Romania as a proper environment for foreign investments, as James Hyslop, EBRD’s Director, Romania, also said.

The loan is being provided under the Local Enterprise Facility, a 400 million euro facility for investments in enterprises in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey, as well as countries in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia). This loan also benefited from Technical Cooperation funds amounting up to 40.000 euro provided under the Local Enterprise Facility to support the implementation of the investment.

Since the start of its operations in Romania the London-based lender has invested approximately 6.6 billion euro across over 350 projects. Last fall EBRD announced that plans to run investments worth up to 600 million euro in Romania in 2014, maintaining a level, in terms of investments, similar to that recorded in the past year.