November 13 (SeeNews) - The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) said on Friday it is providing an 8.0 million euro ($11.9 million) loan to Macedonia’s NLB Tutunska Banka AD Skopje, aimed at financing micro and small enterprises.
"The loan aims to provide continued flow of finance to some 500 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) at times when most banks are reducing their lending activities due to liquidity constraints," EFSE said in the press release sent to SeeNews.
This is the second loan that NLB Tutunska Banka, majority-owned by Slovenia-based Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), has received from EFSE, following a subordinated 12 million euro loan provided last year, EFSE said.
So far, EFSE has committed 39.5 million euro for the Macedonian financial sector, it added.
EFSE (www.efse.lu) was set up in 2005 as a successor to a development finance initiative launched by several donors in southeast Europe in 1998. Its shareholders include sovereign donors, national and international financial institutions and the European Commission. The fund, active in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania, had an investment portfolio of 559 million euro as of the end of September.
NLB Tutunska Banka (www.tb.com.mk) is the third largest Macedonian bank in terms of assets and a leading provider of loans to micro and small enterprises in the country of two million people, EFSE said.
($= 0.6721 euro)