Brussels, 11/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced on Tuesday that it was lending 200 million euro to SEVELNORD S.A. for the development of a new generation of multipurpose vehicles at Valenciennes-Hordain (Nord-Pas de Calais). SEVELNORD - Societe Europeenne de Vehicules Legers du Nord, founded in 1989, is a jointly-owned subsidiary of the PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN and FIAT groups. The project being financed, which will be fully operational by 2002, centres on design work, development, building of prototypes and testing of new generation multipurpose vehicles intended to replace the current models in the Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Lancia ranges; the project also encompasses production facility refurbishment and re-tooling at the Valenciennes-Hordain plant.
The EIB is granting this loan in the framework of its activities aimed at fostering development of the EU's less prosperous regions and strengthening the competitiveness of European industry. Indeed, these investments, "will assist two major groups within the European motor manufacturing industry in updating their range of multipurpose vehicles for a highly competitive marketplace that will soon see new models of compact multipurpose vehicles being introduced by car-makers from both within and outside the European Union", says the EIB in a press release. In addition, the project being funded will enable SEVELNORD, whose plants are located in a priority European regional development area, to increase its workforce to 4,100 employees and to convert 150 temporary jobs into permanent positions. As such, the project is receiving a grants of 8 million euro from the European structural Funds.
Over the past ten years, the EIB has been associated with a number of projects carried out by the PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN group. Among the more significant projects, we find the installation of water-based paint shops at Poissy, the first-generation multipurpose vehicles at Sevelnord near Valencinnes, V-6 engines and automatic gearboxes near Lens, as well as medium-sized engines at Tremery near Metz.