SOFIA (Bulgaria), April 12 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Wednesday it has signed a risk-sharing agreement with Societe Generale's Bulgarian unit in support of SMEs.
“The new facility should help Societe Generale Expressbank better meet the financing needs of Bulgarian companies and we are looking forward to our first joint transaction,” Larisa Manastirli, EBRD Director for Bulgaria, said in a press release.
The transaction is being made under the EBRD’s Small Business Initiative, a strategic bank-wide initiative designed to support and develop micro, small and medium-sized enterprises through a variety of instruments including loans and investments via financial institutions and risk-sharing facilities and direct financing to SMEs.
In 2016 the EBRD invested 620 million euro ($657.1 million) in the Bulgarian economy, the lender said. “In the years ahead, the bank will aim to keep the level of investment at about 200 million euro annually in response to local demand,” it added.
The EBRD is one of the largest institutional investors in Bulgaria. To date, the EBRD has invested over 3.4 billion euro in more than 230 projects in the country. Some 80% of the bank’s investments in Bulgaria are in the private sector.
Expressbank was set up in 1993 in the Black sea city of Varna through the merger of 13 local banks. In 1999 Societe Generale bought 97.95% of the bank and renamed it to SG Expressbank, and later on, to Societe Generale Expressbank. It is the seventh biggest bank in Bulgaria in terms of assets, which stood at 5.9 billion levs ($3.2 billion/3 billion euro) at end-2016.
($ = 0.9435 euro)