China Eximbank provides loan for Phase 2 of BelGee Passenger Car Plant Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#66460)

Project narrative

On May 10, 2015, China Eximbank and the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Belarus signed a $158.7 million preferential buyer’s credit (PBC) agreement [CHINA EXIMBANK No РВС (2015) 10 (352)] for the Phase 1 of the BelGee Passenger Car Plant Construction Project. The PBC carried a maturity of 12 years, but its interest rate and grace period are unknown. It is known that the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Belarus on-lent the PBC proceeds to a joint venture called BelGee CJSC (or BelGi CJSC or SZAO BelGee or СЗАО «БелДжи») and the Government of Belarus’ Ministry of Industry agreed to serve as the guarantor of the loan. Also, on May 10, 2015, China Eximbank issued an additional $88 million loan — with a 10 year maturity — to BelGee CJSC for Phase 1 of BelGee Passenger Car Plant Construction Project. Geely Automobile Holdings Limited issued a guarantee for this loan. The proceeds of the $88 million loan (captured in Record ID#66304) and the PBC (captured in Record ID#66460) were used by BelGee CJSC — a joint venture of OJSC BELAZ (58.471% ownership stake), Zhejiang Jirun Automobile Co. Ltd. (36.284% ownership stake), SZAO Soyuzavtotekhnologii (2.97% ownership stake), and CITICC International Investment Limited (2.275% ownership stake) that was established on December 23, 2011 — to finance a $300 million commercial (EPC) contract that it signed with CITIC Construction in March 2015. The purpose of Phase 1 was to build a passenger car assembly plant — with welding, painting and assembly shops — in Great Stone Industrial Park within the Borisov District of Minsk. Upon completion of Phase 1, it was envisaged that the passenger car assembly plant would have a production capacity of 60,000 cars (Geely Atlas NL3) per year. CITIC Construction was the EPC contractor responsible for implementation. Construction began in May 2015 and ended in July 2017. The opening of the plant took place on November 17, 2017. At the time, it reportedly employed 1300 people (mostly local residents). On November 17, 2017, China Eximbank and BelGee CJSC also signed a loan (captured in Record ID#66301) for Phase 2 of the BelGee Passenger Car Plant Construction Project. Phase 2, which seeks to expand the production capacity of the plant from 60,000 to 120,000 cars per year, commenced on the very same day.