EBRD extends financing Tirana Bank

TIRANA, Oct. 5 – The EBRD signed Tuesday three credit lines worth a total of 200 million euros with subsidiaries of Piraeus Bank in Albania, Romania and Bulgaria for on-lending to businesses in their respective countries. Under the project, Tirana Bank will get 40 million euros of new funding from the EBRD while Piraeus Bank Romania and Piraeus Bank Bulgaria 90 and 70 million euros, respectively.
The EBRD financing will provide the three banks with medium term senior funding to support their funding base, diversify and extend the maturity of their liabilities and enhance their lending to the economy as well as strengthen further their presence in these markets.
“The EBRD is pleased to expand its cooperation with the subsidiaries of the Piraeus group in the region, as support for the banks and the real economy is particularly important given the relative fragility of the economic recovery in much of south-eastern Europe. The project will help to ensure a continued flow of credit to private companies operating in Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania at a time when businesses are still facing difficulties in obtaining funding for their operation and development’, said Nick Tesseyman, EBRD Managing Director for Financial Institutions.
“Piraeus Bank Group assigns great significance to the agreement with the EBRD. The Group fully supports all sectors of economic activity in these three countries and has now enhanced its funding capabilities. The new credit lines will be dedicated to both SMEs and larger private companies and will increase the financing available to our clients and to the local businesses”, said Mr. Ilias Milis, Deputy Managing Director, Piraeus Bank Group.
This package of loans, to be provided in two equal trenches, is part of the Joint International Financial Institutions Action Plan and follows other similar facilities offered to the subsidiaries of the major Western European strategic banking groups engaged in the region over the past 18 months.
Under the Joint IFI Action Plan, unveiled in February 2009, the EBRD, the World Bank Group and the European Investment Bank (EIB) pledged to provide 24.5 billion over two years to support the economies of eastern Europe via the banking sectors.
The London-based lender, is owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, and supports the development of market economies and democracies in countries from central Europe to central Asia.