Inhabitants of Odessa, Ukraine’s third largest municipality, and visitors to the country’s prime holiday destination will enjoy better retail standards as a result of the expansion of the Riviera Shopping City (Riviera) supported by the EBRD.
A €52.5 million financing package arranged by the Bank for the special project company Novi Biznes Poglyady (NBP), which owns and operates Riviera, will help it expand the existing gross leasing area by 18,131 square meters by the end of 2022. The loan will also be used to restructure NBP’s balance sheet.
As part of the investment programme, hundreds of young women and men will be able to receive specialised vocational training in, IT, foreign languages, sales, marketing and other disciplines.
The investment will increase the availability of modern retail space in Odessa, which is currently behind most east European cities with a gross leasing area of around 250 square metres per 1,000 inhabitants.
The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Ukraine and to date has committed more than €14.5 billion in over 460 projects to the country.
