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EBRD extends support to Azerbaijani banks
Four new loans build on EBRD commitment to private banking
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is further extending its
support for Azerbaijan’s leading private banks by signing loan agreements with
four of its five banking partners in the country on the eve of the Bank’s
Annual Meeting in London.
The deals – a $5 million credit line to Azerdemiryolbank and a $4.5 million
line to Bank of Baku to benefit micro, small and medium sized enterprises, and
two $2 million credit lines to Bank Respublika and Unibank respectively to
benefit small and medium sized enterprises – are being signed by Kurt Geiger,
the Bank’s Financial Institutions Business Group Director, at the Hilton
Metropole, venue of the EBRD Annual Meeting, at 16:00 on Saturday 20 May.
The EBRD has since 1998 been encouraging Azerbaijani bank’s to finance smaller
enterprises. Its partners so far have been the four banks signing deals in
London and a fifth, Azerigazbank (which signed a separate $2 million credit
line agreement in April this year to benefit micro small and medium sized
enterprises). Complementing their services to small businesses, these five
banks also benefit from EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme.
As smaller businesses develop, in line with Azerbaijan’s overall economy, the
local banks’ business volumes are increasing, Geiger said. Yet the EBRD
remains one of the few potential providers of longer-term finance from
international markets. Between 2002 and 2005, the EBRD’s five partner banks,
which focus on supporting small and medium sized businesses, received eleven
credit lines worth a total of $18.85 million, which they used to finance 66
sub-projects in the manufacturing, trade and services sectors. The latest
agreements bring the total made available to these five banking partners to
$37.35 million, including SME lending, a syndicated loan and two equity
investments.
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