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The European Investment Bank provides a EUR 20 million Global Loan to Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD to finance projects of small and medium-scale enterprises and municipalities in Bulgaria
26 March 2004
The European Investment Bank provides a EUR 20 million Global Loan to Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD to finance projects of small and medium-scale enterprises and municipalities in Bulgaria.
The global loan will serve for financing of small- and medium-scale projects in the field of environmental protection, infrastructure, industry or tourism. This is already the second global loan signed with Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD. The first EIB global loan with this bank amounting to EUR 10 million was signed in October 2002. It was allocated within 8 months only for financing sub-projects, mainly in the tourism sector, real estate and manufacture.
EIB Global Loans have been developed as a successful tool in providing long-term EIB funds for financing smaller projects implemented by the SME sector or by municipalities under favourable conditions. Since 1990, the EIB has signed six global loan facilities for a total amount of EUR 120 million with five partner banks in Bulgaria.
The Global Loans represent special credit lines to selected partner banks operating in the individual countries. This financial scheme is used by the EIB to finance small and medium-size projects with a total investment higher than EUR 40 000 and less than EUR 25 million. EIB partner banks, like Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria), assess each project, assume the credit risk and set the loan conditions for the final beneficiary. Interested investors should address the intermediaries directly.
Background
Since 1990, the EIB, as the European Union's long-term financing institution, has provided loans to Bulgaria amounting to almost EUR 1.1 billion so far for projects fostering the country’s integration into the EU.
Generally, in the future Member States of Central Europe, the EIB has lent more than EUR 25 billion to projects since 1990. Therefore, the EIB is the most important external source of finance for Central and Eastern Europe.
Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD (RBBG) is a 100% subsidiary of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Öesterreich AG (RZB-Austria), Vienna through Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG (RI), which is the holding company for RZB’s most important subsidiaries in CEE. The new global loan facility form the EIB, reinforces RBBG’s position of a major lender to the SME sector in Bulgaria. In 2003, within less than a year after signing, RBBG fully disbursed to SMEs credit lines for a total of EUR 20 Mio. from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Over the past several years RBBG has been one of the most dynamic financial institutions in Bulgaria. In 2003 its total assets increased by 47 per cent up to a total of EUR 444 Mio; the loan portfolio reached EUR 340 Mio marking an increase of 50 per cent and the Net Profit After Tax is EUR 7 Mio.
