Transaction supports 5,000 American jobs

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), Kazakhstan's state-owned national railway company, and KTZ's subsidiary Joint Stock Company Lokomotiv, signed a Credit Agreement for $425 million in support of the sale by General Electric Co., Erie, Penn., of approximately 200 GE Evolution Series locomotives and locomotive kits to KTZ.

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The Credit Agreement was signed at a ceremony at Ex-Im Bank headquarters by Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg, KTZ Chief Financial Officer Kanat Alpysbayev and Joint Stock Company Lokomotiv CEO Marat Medeubayev. Also in attendance were Charge d'Affaires of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States Dastan S. Yeleukenov and General Electric Transportation Systems President and CEO Lorenzo Simonelli. 

"This transaction will support approximately 5,000 American jobs and help advance the goals outlined in President Obama's National Export Initiative," said Chairman Hochberg. "KTZ is the largest private employer in Kazakhstan, and I am pleased that Ex-Im financing is helping the country meet its growing infrastructure needs.

"I would also like to thank both KTZ and GE for making Ex-Im Bank more customer-focused. This transaction was initially held up because of outdated systems and processes. That prompted us to change our way of doing business; we streamlined our procedures and established new benchmarks. I'm proud to report that this past year, 90 percent of all transactions were processed within 30 days, and 98 percent were processed within 100 days; it's government at the speed of business."

The documents signed support a $425 million direct loan approved by Ex-Im bank's board of directors to finance KTZ's purchase of GE locomotive kits. This is the largest single amount of financing that Ex-Im Bank has provided to any railroad anywhere in the world during the past 15 years. The contract is GE's largest equipment sale to date with KTZ since it began selling to the railway in early 2000.

About Ex-Im Bank

Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. In the past five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 billion above the cost of operations. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.

Ex-Im Bank approved $35.8 billion in total authorizations in FY 2012 – an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6.1 billion directly supporting small-business export sales – also an Ex-Im record. Ex-Im Bank's total authorizations are supporting an estimated $50 billion in U.S. export sales and approximately 255,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.

SOURCE Export-Import Bank of the United States