August 23 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Romania's BRD Groupe Societe Generale [BSE: BRD] have concluded a new partnership to extend the range of financing products for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Through this partnership, BRD and the EIF aim to stimulate access to finance for local SMEs by providing new loans totalling up to 140 million lei ($36 million/31 million euro), both for the financing of working capital and for Investment projects, BRD Groupe said in a press release.
The benefits for the SMEs include reduced interest rates and a 60% EIF guarantee of the value of each credit facility.
The partnership also aims to support enterprises that meet the eligibility criteria specific to ORIZONT 2020, one of the largest research and innovation programmes of the European Union.
"We are aware of the importance of SMEs in the Romanian economy and therefore we want to facilitate access to as many funding programmes launched either by the European Union and administered by specialized international financial institutions, either by national public authorities with experience in the field," BRD Groupe general maneger, Francois Bloch, said.
"We hope that this new opportunity, together with the experience accumulated by our bank in the financing of SMEs, will contribute to the consolidation, development and diversification of the economic activities carried out by these important actors of the Romanian business environment."
This is the third agreement between the BRD Groupe and the EIF for financing Romanian SMEs, after those signed in 2004 on guaranteeing investment loans and in 2013 on the JEREMIE financial instrument which allowed partial interest rate subsidies and low securities requirements.
BRD Groupe in Romania comprises BRD, the country's third-largest bank by assets, Sogelease IFN, BRD Finance IFN and BRD Asset Management.
The overall net profit of the BRD Groupe in the first half of 2017 was 750 million lei, double on an annual comparison basis. The group's total assets fell to 52.79 billion lei as of end-June, from 51.88 billion lei a year earlier.
Shares of blue-chip BRD Groupe Societe Generale traded 0.14% lower at 13.98 lei by 1154 CET on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
(1 euro = 4.5873 Romanian lei)
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