Bulgaria’s UniCredit Bulbank lends 3.6 mln euro to Pazardzhik municipality

The municipality will use the loan for bridge financing of investment costs on projects approved under EU operational programmes, as well as to refinance existing debt, UniCredit Bulbank said in a statement.

Unicredit Bulbank was chosen to provide the loan in a public procurement procedure in which six banks participated.

UniCredit Bulbank has been partnering with the Pazardzhik municipality since the end of 2010, when it provided a 3.0 million levs loan to a similar purpose.

UniCredit Bulbank, controlled by Unicredit Bank Austria, is the biggest Bulgarian bank by assets, central bank data indicates. Bulgaria has 24 domestically-registered banks and branches of seven foreign lenders.

(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)