ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU” ) announced today that that Beo Čista Energija Ltd. (“BCE”), the project company to which contributions are made by the consortium, ITOCHU, SUEZ, a leading French water and environmental utility company, and Marguerite Fund II, a pan-European equity fund investing in renewables, energy, transportation, and digital infrastructure, have executed a project finance loan agreement for a total amount of around 300 million EUR (hereinafter the “Loan Agreement”) with International Finance Corporation (IFC), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank (Austria’s Development Bank “OeEB”).

BCE has obtained all required planning permissions to proceed with the project, with the start of full commercial operations planned in 2022.

The project will address one of the biggest environmental and social problems in Serbia - closing and remediating the existing landfill at the Vinca dumpsite, a 40-hectare environmental catastrophe on the bank of the Danube river. BCE will construct and operate facilities to produce power from waste treatment and methane gas and the facilities to process construction and demolition waste and polluted water over a period of 25 years. Within that time, it will become possible for these facilities to supply electricity equivalent to the total power consumption for approximately 30,000 households and 80% of the production of Konjarnik plant in Belgrade in the winter season in Serbia, as a substitute for fossil fuels, and help ease greenhouse gas emissions (approx. 3 million tons of CO2 emissions reduced in 25 years) by further reducing the current amount of buried waste.

This project forms the core of Serbia’s environmental and waste management policies aimed at compliance with the EU’s environmental and waste disposal standards and is positioned as one of the most important projects for Serbia, as it negotiates EU accession.

ITOCHU has developed and invested in similar preceding projects in the UK with SUEZ; South Tyne & Wear Partnership (press release on April 28, 2011), Cornwall (press release on April 12, 2013), West London (press release on November 28, 2013), and Merseyside (press release on December 24, 2013), which in aggregate treat around 1.3 million tons of waste annually, accounting for roughly 15% of the waste incineration market in the UK.

Backed by its experience in waste management projects in the UK and Serbia, ITOCHU aims to expand its involvement in the waste management business around the world to contribute to creating a sustainable community and to help reduce the burden on the environment.