November 7 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian Encouragement Bank, majority state-owned, said on Wednesday it had placed a 5.0 million levs ($3.7 million/2.5 million euro) bond issue to secure growth.
"The money will fund the bank's lending to small and medium-sized enterprises," the bank said in a statement.
The two-year bond issue, the bank's first, carries an annual coupon of 4.75% with payments due every three months, the bank said in a statement. The issue was privately placed.
Encouragement Bank, which is 99.997% owned by the government, reported a net profit exceeding 7.0 million levs for the first nine months of the year, it said in the statement, providing no comparative figures. Its net profit for last year rose 8.8% to 3.0 million levs.
The Bulgarian government plans to rename it Development Bank and to restructure it to facilitate the absorption of European Union funds. A guarantee fund and a capital investment fund will be set up as part of the bank. The government is also reportedly considering selling a minority stake in it to a strategic investor or similar European banks.
Encouragement Bank (www.nasbank.bg) mainly provides lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and promotes Bulgarian exports.
Bulgaria, which joined the EU on January 1, will have access to over 11 billion euro from the Union's cohesion and structural funds up to 2013.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)