August 1 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Tuesday it is investing 152.5 million lei ($39 million/33 million euro) in a tranche of senior unsecured bonds issued by Romania's UniCredit Bank.
The bond issuance aims to strengthen UniCredit Bank with additional funds which will allow it to increase its support for the real economy, the EBRD said in a press release.
"Our acquisition of senior unsecured bonds is not only a sign of our confidence in our partner, but also a signal to the market. At the same time, it will be primarily local private enterprises that stand to benefit from the increase in available funds to finance their growth," EBRD regional director for Romania and Bulgaria, Matteo Patrone, said.
On Monday, UniCredit Bank raised 610 million lei through bond issuance on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The proceeds from the issue will be used for general financing purposes, mostly lending to customers.
"We aim to continue diversifying our financing structure, and in Romania we are the first bank to launch new investment structures that meet the needs of local qualified investors and are aligned to the Romanian economy’s characteristics and capacity,” UniCredit Bank CEO, Rasvan Radu, said.
UniCredit Bank's pre-tax profit jumped 30.3% year-on-year, reaching 91 million euro ($97.3 million) in 2016. The bank operates 200 branches and serves more than 600,000 customers.
In August 2015, Romania's UniCredit Tiriac Bank changed its name to UniCredit Bank after UniCredit Bank Austria raised its stake in it to 95.6%.
The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Romania and has invested close to 7.5 billion euro in the country to date in almost 400 projects.
(1 euro=4.5598 lei)
UniCredit Bank SA (formerly known as UniCredit Tiriac Bank SA) is among the biggest banks in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here