Nordea has granted increased financing in the amount of EUR 2 million to SIA Bio-Venta for the purposes of stock financing. The total limit granted by the bank amounts to EUR 5.5 million, which is mainly intended for the development of the company’s export activities and the organisation of efficient financial flows at the company.
SIA Bio-Venta is the largest biodiesel production and transfer facility in the Baltics. The company’s main strategic product is biodiesel, which is being produced from renewable natural resources (rapeseed) and can be used to replace fossil diesel fuel. Biodiesel is used in vehicles on a daily basis as an admixture for fossil diesel fuel. In Latvia, a mandatory 5% admixture of biodiesel is applicable in the period from March to November. In 2015, the company’s export share of its total current turnover already exceeds 93%.
SIA Bio-Venta board member for financial issues Egils Staris: “Thanks to the additional financing granted by Nordea, the amount of funds available to SIA Bio-Venta will be increased at a time when the volumes sold in the local market (November to March) are at their lowest levels and when it is necessary to provide raw material stocks to secure production processes for a period of half a year or more after the rapeseed harvest.”
“SIA Bio-Venta has been one of Nordea’s long-term and reliable partners and a customer of the home bank. I am therefore particularly pleased that, up until now, our collaboration has marked various phases of the company’s development, i.e. from the moment when the construction of the Bio-Venta plant began and ambitious goals were set to launch export activities up until now, a time when the company, having reached the next development phase, is thinking about entering still more new export markets. Taking into account the growing global trend of increasing the share of fuels produced from renewable energy sources for consumption in the transport sector*, we see significant export growth potential for the company in the future as well,” says Jānis Buks, Nordea Latvia Manager.
*From the Technology Roadmap: Biofuels for transport (SEA,2011): it is being predicted that by 2050, biofuels will reach a 27% share of the total amount of transport fuels and, following sustainable production, the annual reduction of CO2 emissions will be approximately 2.1 Gt.