BSTDB With Partner Development Banks Support Small and Medium Enterprises in the Caucasus
Press Release | 30-Mar-2012
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) together with the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group (IFC), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the Netherlands Development Bank (FMO) is supporting small and medium businesses in the Caucasus by investing in a new private equity fund.
BSTDB with its partner international financial institutions will initially provide $40 million to the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF) Caucasus Growth Fund, with a target size of $70 million. The Fund is the first professionally structured and managed private equity fund in the Caucasus region to provide debt and equity capital to small and medium enterprises in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
The Fund will invest across a range of industries, with particular focus on consumer and business services, agribusiness, distribution and retail, all of which have been largely underserved by private equity providers.
“Support towards the development of small and medium enterprises in the Black Sea region is a strategic priority for BSTDB, a regional development institution. The SEAF Caucasus Fund will facilitate access to affordable capital for competitive private businesses in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and foster good business practices and knowledge transfer. The project is also a demonstration of the positive synergies between development partners in promoting sustainable growth and job creation through private sector development in the region” said Andrey Butin, BSTDB Director for Financial Institutions.
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The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is SDR 3 billion (appx. EUR 3.3 billion). BSTDB is rated long-term “A” by Standard and Poor’s and “A3” by Moody’s. For more information about BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org
SEAF is a global fund manager with an extensive track record of developing local fund management capacity and providing growth and expansion capital to small and medium enterprises in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
For more information about IFC, visit www.ifc.org
For more information about EBRD, visit www.ebrd.com
For more information about FMO, visit www.fmo.nl
For more information about SEAF, visit www.seaf.ge
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