Ananta Group gets $13.8m low-cost loan from French company

Ananta Group, a leading apparel exporter, has received $13.8 million in low-cost financial support from Proparco, a French Development Finance Institution.

The Proparco has extended the loan to Ananta Huaxiang Limited (AHL), a subsidiary of Ananta Group, to help the latter to expand its sweater production capacity at its manufacturing facility located in Adamjee Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Narayanganj.

This operation will allow Ananta Huaxiang to boost its sweater manufacturing capacity and strengthen its competitiveness in the international market, according to a joint statement issued on Wednesday.

The financial support comes at a time for the company when the country is facing a dollar crisis.

Talking with The Business Standard, Annanta Group Managing Director Sharif Zahir said, the financial support will be transferred to the company account within the next 15 days.

Ananta Huaxiang Ltd is a joint venture company established in 2010 as a partnership between Ananta Group and Shanghai Huaxiang of China.

AHL ranks among the top 10 sweater producers in Bangladesh exporting mostly to Europe for various international brands.

The factory exports high value sweaters at a minimum Freight on Board (FOB) prices of above $7, said Sharif Zahir.

With the expansion project and the increase in high-end sweater manufacturing capabilities, AHL will be better able to serve its customers by producing over 10 million pieces of sweaters by 2023 at better price points than before.

Sharif Zahir hoped the new facility at the Narayanganj factory will add $20 million in its annual export turnover.

"We exported products worth $40 million in the last year," he said.

"The new capacity created about 2,000 employment opportunities," he said, adding its total manpower currently stands at 4,500.

He also mentioned that the factory pays employees a fixed amount as per the EPZ law, while most sweater manufacturing companies are paying workers based on their production output.

"It gives us immense pleasure to support AHL, a responsible actor in Bangladesh's garment industry committed to gender diversity. By supporting the growth of a job-creating company committed to the well-being of its employees, women empowerment as well as the sustainable use of resources, Proparco is supporting the largest exporting sector of Bangladesh," said Diane Jegam, regional director, South Asia, Proparco.

Due to the quality of AHL's working conditions and its various commitments towards women empowerment, the project qualifies for the 2X Challenge, a global gender finance initiative that Proparco has been contributing to since its launch in 2018, read the statement.

"This partnership with Proparco will greatly support our vision of sustainable factories scoring high on environmental and social compliance standards. Moreover, the new capacity expansion financed by Proparco has been completed in record time and the factory is already in operation employing a gender balanced workforce and contributing to the export earnings of the country. Further, we are delighted to work with Proparco and look forward to growing this partnership in the coming year", said Sharif Zahir.

Ananta Group is one of the leading apparel manufacturers based in Bangladesh, with revenues of over $360 million and employing 26,000 people across several facilities in Dhaka and Chattogram.

The Group exports to various international brands in Europe and North America and specialises in several product categories including denim, suits, outerwear, sweaters, lingerie and activewear.