|
EBRD provides a $ 36million syndicated loan to Bank Forum
The EBRD has arranged a $36 million syndicated loan to Bank Forum one of the
largest banks in Ukraine. The loan facility consists of an A-loan of $12
million from EBRD and B-loan of $24 million. The loan facility was fully
underwritten by Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich Aktiengesellschaft and
Standard Bank Plc and attracted good interest from the market resulting in a
significant oversubscription. The B-loan was syndicated to 9 commercial banks
i.e. Erste Bank, State Bank of India, Nassau (OBU), HSBC Bank plc., National
City Bank, Banque BIA, Banco Efisa, S.A. (Grupo BPN), Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank
International AG, Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien AG and Land Bank
of Taiwan, Offshore Banking Branch. The syndicated loan will allow Forum to
provide medium-term funding to its clients in Ukraine. It is expected that the
size of individual sub-loans under this facility will not exceed $2 million.
The EBRD was able to increase the B Loan by $4 million in order to accommodate
the high demand from the market. The resultant oversubscription, however, only
partly met the demand of participants.
The loan will provide much needed medium-term funding to Bank Forum for
on-lending to its privately owned clients, primarily micro, small and medium
companies in a local market where such funding and access to international
capital markets is limited.
Since the beginning of its successful cooperation with the EBRD in 2001, Bank
Forum has become involved into various EBRD programmes including Trade
Facilitation Programme and SME/MSE Lines of Credit.
Forum Bank is the first Ukrainian bank to achieve a fully underwritten
facility with such a long tenor and has become only the second Ukrainian bank
to attract a syndicated loan with the 18-month maturity. This surpasses the
1-year threshold currently available for Ukrainian banks of similar size.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the biggest financial
investor in Ukraine. As of 31 December 2006 it had committed €2.87 billion
through more than 130 projects.
|
