April 17 (SeeNews) - The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) and Bulgarian lender Postbank will jointly provide a 58.3 million euro ($72.3 million) loan to I Tower Development for the construction of a Marriott hotel in Sofia, the first in the country, the two lenders said.
"The operation will not only improve the hospitality infrastructure in Sofia, but will also make a significant contribution to the Bulgarian economy in terms of tax revenues, creation of direct and indirect jobs, and increased activity in the local construction industry," BSTDB president Ihsan Ugur Delikanli said during the official loan signing ceremony in Sofia on Monday.
BSTDB acted as arranger of the deal. The term of the loan will be 12 years.
BSTDB will provide 32 million euro, while Postbank will come up with the remaining 26.3 million euro.
"As a development institution, BSTDB is happy to attract foreign investment to Bulgaria, while strengthening synergies with the local financial sector to promote economic growth in the country," Ihsan Ugur Delikanli added.
The Marriott hotel in Sofia will have 232 rooms. Its construction is expected to be completed in 2020.
The new hotel will aim to meet growing demand for high quality business and tourist accommodation and conference facilities in Sofia, Delikanli noted.
"We are proud to be part of such a challenging project - a club deal between two lenders, foreign investors and one of the most famous hotel chains worldwide – Marriott," Petia Dimitrova, CEO of Postbank, said.
"We believe that this is a landmark deal for our market as such large-scale projects are rare and have a really significant impact on the economy as a whole, on our city, on our country," Dimitrova added. "It proves once again that foreign investors are interested in doing business here."
Postbank will also support the development of the project through full servicing of the client accounts.
"Attracting one of the global leaders in hospitality in the face of Marriott has been crucial and will definitely contribute to marking the development as one of the landmarks in Sofia," Vittorio Gori, CEO of I Tower Development, said during the event.
The project will create more than 250 jobs in different departments, according to Gori.
"In addition to the first Marriott hotel in Sofia, the project will include five restaurants, boutique retail and high end residential units all with breathtaking views rising above the city skyline," Gori said.
I Tower Development is a special-purpose company set up in Bulgaria in 2016 for the development of the project. I Tower Development is a wholly-owned unit of Italy's Finvis. Finvis, owned by Vittorio Gori and his wife, is active in the telecommunication and in real estate business, as well as in the production and sales of paper-based products.
Thessaloniki-headquartered Black Sea Trade and Development Bank is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries .The authorized capital of the bank is 3.45 billion euro.
Since the beginning of operations, BSTDB has signed 31 operations in Bulgaria with a total value of more than 350 million euro.
Postbank was the fifth largest lender by assets in Bulgaria at end-February, according to central bank data.
($=0.8065 euro)