|
|
PRESS RELEASE Terri Rondeau, director, corporate
communications
The Export-Import Bank of the Unites States (Ex-Im Bank) is helping Besser Company, a small business manufacturer in Alpena, Mich., to sell over $650,000 of concrete masonry production equipment in its first sale of a complete new facility to the emerging African market of Ghana. An Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed, medium-term loan of $598,000 from HSBC Markets, Inc. of New York, N.Y., is enabling Besser to sell its Bescopac™ concrete masonry production machinery and related equipment to Regimanuel Gray Limited, a private builder in Ghana's capital city of Accra, for production of concrete masonry units to be used in construction of housing and other buildings. "We know that small businesses in the United States often find that their best customers are other small businesses in foreign countries," said Ex-Im Bank Board Member Maria Luisa Haley. "This transaction represents the kind of export sales that we can facilitate for small businesses, especially in emerging markets such as Ghana, which is one of the most active in sub-Saharan Africa for U.S. products and services. Haley will be on a business development mission in Accra, Ghana, on 16-20 February, in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, on 20-24 February, and in Dakar, Senegal, on 24-26 February. She will meet with high-level government officials and business leaders in all three countries, as well as with representatives of local and international accounting firms, industry groups, and local banks. Haley and Bank accompanying staff with hold seminars for small and large companies and bankers interested in Ex-Im Bank financing to import U.S. goods and services. Besser Company, a world-renowned maker of complete systems for the production of concrete masonry units, has been exporting since 1937 and won the President's "E-Star" award for exporting in 1994. The company employs 700 people, and has U.S. production facilities in Alpena and Holland, Mich.; Boone and Sioux City, Iowa; and San Antonio, Texas. Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that in the past five years has financed nearly $900 million of U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa. Ex-Im Bank is open to consider business under its loan, guarantee, and insurance programs in 21 sub-Saharan African countries, and will consider project finance transactions in 45 sub-Saharan African countries. Visit Ex-Im Bank's web site, www.exim.gov, for more information on programs and details on the upcoming U.S. -Africa ministerial meeting to be held in Washington, D.C., 16-18 March, 1999. |
