$77 million industrial loans
approved by Cedar Oxygen

To fund raw material imports

and purchases of machinery

The Cedar Oxygen fund approved more than 60 loans to the industrial sector in 2022 boosting its lending portfolio over seven times in one year to above 70 loans, according Ibrahim Salibi, CEO of Cedar Oxygen-Lebanon.

The size of a loan ranges from $200,000 to $10 million with an average value of $1.1 million.

“We also have 25 loans in the pipeline. The reason for the growth in lending is that we have tailored our products to suit the needs of the market. We have made our conditions more acceptable to our customers and reviewed the interest rates we charge. We have also streamlined and simplified the process for obtaining a loan,” Salibi said.

Over 70 percent of the loans aim to finance raw material imports. The fund also provides capital expenditure (CAPEX) financing for machinery purchases and it discounts the receivables of manufacturers. “Our latest product is renewable energy financing. It is a hot product in high demand because it allows manufacturers to save on fuel costs amid rising oil prices and after the lifting of fuel subsidies especially that fuels are a large component of their cost structure,” Salibi said

Cedar Oxygen, which is considering extending its lending to other sectors in the future, is in talks with potential investors to raise additional funds beyond the $175 million initial funding provided by the Central Bank.

The potential investors are both individual and institutional investors, Lebanese and non-Lebanese, according to Salibi. “The funds that we are seeking to raise could consist of equity or debt. We are presenting ourselves as a fund involved in impact financing in order to attract investors who, besides financial returns, are concerned that their investments have positive impact on society,” he said.