FLORIDA FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS SELLS DAIRY AND JUICE EQUIPMENT IN EGYPT WITH EX-IM BANK FINANCING
Equipment Specialists Inc., of Haines City, FL, a small woman-owned family business, is selling $4.5 million worth of production equipment for a new dairy and juice plant to Egyptian Trading Co., For Glass (ETG) in Cairo, Egypt, backed by a $4 million medium-term guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). ETG will use the equipment to begin production on a new pasteurized dairy plant in Egypt. The National Bank of Egypt, NY, is the guaranteed lender on the transaction. This transaction marks the first time an Egyptian bank has used Ex-Im Bank's medium-term Master Guarantee Agreement to act as the lender under Ex-Im Bank's comprehensive guarantee. The transaction was arranged by Trade Source International of Pasadena, CA.
Founded in 1984, Equipment Specialist, Inc., an 11-employee company has developed a niche in the Middle East by providing equipment and engineering services for beverage processing and packaging plants, pasteurizers, water filtration systems, brewing plants and dairy equipment homogenizers. Ex-Im Bank has supported three previous transactions with Equipment Specialist, Inc., totaling $4.2 million to Mexico, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Ex-Im Bank is an independent U.S. government agency that helps finance the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to growth markets throughout the world, by providing loans, guarantees, and insurance. In fiscal year 2002, authorized $1.8 billion in financing to support U.S. small business exports and supported approximately $13 billion of U.S. exports worldwide.