March 30 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday it is considering the provision of a senior loan of 40 million euro ($43.1 million) to Romanian lender Banca Transilvania [BSE: TLV] for green investment financing.
The loan is being considered under the Green Economy Finance Facility (GEFF) focusing on financing green investments in the residential sector in Romania, EBRD said in a press release.
The financing will be used for on-lending to eligible sub-borrowers for investments in energy and resource efficiency measures in the residential buildings.
The loan is expected to demonstrate the effects of green economy investments to Banca Transilvania and sub-borrowers and to contribute to market expansion by increasing the availability and access to residential green economy finance and high-performance green technologies, EBRD noted.
The EBRD acquired a 15% stake in Banca Transilvania in 2001 to strengthen the Romanian lender's capital base and support the expansion of its activities and loan portfolio. The EBRD reduced its equity stake to 11.47% in 2015 and cut it further, to 8.6%, in November 2016.
Banca Transilvania, established in 1994, was the second largest bank by total assets in Romania as of December 2016. It is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since 1997, with a current market capitalization of around 2.2 billion euro.
Shares in blue-chip Banca Transilvania traded 0.95% higher at 2.67 lei as at 1341 CET on Thursday.
($= 0.9266 euro)