EBRD President Jean Lemierre signed yesterday a EUR 54mn loan for the local hydropower project company VETs Svoge, in which Petrolvilla Bulgaria, owned by Italy ’s Petrolvilla&Bortolotti holds 90% of the share capital. The municipality of Svoge controls the remaining 10% stake. The company will build nine hydropower plants with total capacity of 25.7MW located on the Iskar River , some 40 kilometres north of the capital Sofia . The credit is structures in two facilities: A-loan of up to EUR 34mn financed by the EBRD, and a B-loan of up to EUR 20mn syndicated by an international bank. The total investment for construction and commissioning of the power plants is estimated at EUR 73mn. The first plant is expected to launch operations in March next year and the last one in 2011. The project includes a clause for sending carbon credits to EBRD for estimated reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the amount of 336,462 tonnes of CO2.