BSTDB Increases Financing to Bulgarian SMEs

Press Release | 09-Oct-2009

BSTDB provided an SME loan facility to Bulgarian Development Bank AD (BDB) for the amount of EUR 8 million.

The loan facility will be made available by Bulgarian Development Bank to Bulgarian SMEs for the purpose of financing of projects with maturity up to 5 years with a grace period of up to 18 months for the creation, modernization, expansion and diversification of business facilities, as well as working capital financing for production or service related facilities and medium term incremental or start-up working capital requirements; and, export and pre-export financing of industrial or agricultural enterprises.

“We are confident that in this highly constrained credit environment, where alternative options for SMEs are limited, our loan will bring economic benefits for the Bulgarian economy, like new employment opportunities and increase in export capacity and competitiveness”, said Hayrettin Kaplan, BSTDB President signing the loan agreement.

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Bulgarian Development Bank was established after the adoption of a special law by the Parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria in April 2008. The financial institution is a successor of Encouragement Bank. The mission of the Bulgarian Development Bank is to support the development of the Bulgarian economy by promoting export and supporting the implementation of the economic policy of the government in terms of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, either directly or through on-lending.

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 is 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 recently increased authorized capital of the Bank is SDR 3 billion (approx. USD 4,85 billion). BSTDB is rated Long Term Baa1 with positive outlook and Short Term P2 by Moody’s.