EBRD Takes Sole Ownership of Moldova’s Giurgiulesti Port

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, EBRD, has become the 100-per-cent owner of the Giurgiulesti International Free Port in Moldova.

After acquiring a majority stake in Danube Logistics SRL, it became the sole beneficiary of the port, one of the most important strategic sites in Moldova. On average, the port facilitates the international trade of Moldovan companies with more than 50 countries every year, EBRD said.

Giurgiulesti lies in the south of Moldova and offers the only indirect exit to the sea for the landlocked country. It lies where the Prut River meets with the Danube, which flows into the Black Sea.

"The EBRD has been a shareholder in Giurgiulesti Port since 1995 and aims to promote the continued operation and successful development of the objective," the bank said in a statement. The bank said that it will continue attracting international investors to further develop it.

The EBRD has supported the construction and operation of the Free International Port since 1995. In 2013, Credit Suisse was the primary economic beneficiary of the port's operation following the refinancing of Danube Logistics' outstanding debts to Credit Suisse.

After Danube Logistics took a 25 million US dollars loan from Credit Suisse in March 2007, it was unable to repay it. The debt was paid with a new loan, from EBRD, and from a Moldovan bank.

In 2004, Moldova's government signed an Investment Agreement for Giurgiulesti Port with Azpetrol from Azerbaijan, led by Rafiq Aliyev. The deal was for Azpetrol to pay off the Moldovan government's debt to the EBRD for its previous loan to develop the port.

Rafiq and his brother Farhad Aliyev were then arrested in 2005 for corruption under Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and...