East African Breweries Limited (EABL) have secured a Sh12.5 billion (US$125 million) long-term loan commissioned by the Standard bank Group. These funds will be put to the use of the Senator Keg factory in Kisumu.
The factory is expected to generate 110,000 direct and indirect jobs and further the demand for sorghum to 40,000 in the next five years from the current estimate of 20,000.
The company said that Standard Bank will advance the funds to them through Stanbic Holdings, it’s subsidy in Kenya.
Diageo, the multinational brewer has a 50.2 percent share in EABL. EABL is also committed to putting up Sh2.5 billion of its own funds as part of the Sh15 billion (US$150 million) factory. The construction of the same is expected to be completed by July 2019.
“We managed to secure a Sh12.5 billion long-term facility,” said Gyuri Geiszl, EABL’s finance director. “We have just drawn down a small portion, about Sh2 billion, since the project has just started.
As we move along, we shall generate the cashflow to fund the remaining portion.”
Stanbic Holdings has a reputation of being EABL’s four principal bankers and has supported numerous other capital intensive projects alongside the likes of Barclays Bank of Kenya, Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank.
“Six months ago, we had a couple of ideas of how we were going to fund the Kisumu brewery, but we eventually settled on debt,” Mr Geiszl said without disclosing the options dropped.
