BSTDB Expands Support for SME Sector in Bulgaria
Press Release | 02-Nov-2017
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) provides a EUR 20 million revolving short-term SME Loan Facility to ProCredit Bank Bulgaria to contribute to the financing of the small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the country. The Facility will have a development impact to address working financing needs of Bulgarian SMEs, promoting their income generation and increased trade turnover. Besides, it will underpin regional cooperation through the recently established ProCredit Bank branch in Thessaloniki (Greece).
“We are happy to continue our mutually beneficial cooperation with ProCredit Bank in Bulgaria to provide the country’s businesses with much needed additional access to affordable financing. This is important for the private sector development in general and for small and medium-sized enterprises in particular," said Igor Leshukov, Vice President Banking after the signing.
"It is part of our bank’s objective to support SMEs, which are the backbone of the economy. To that end, we continually strive to become a reliable partner for these businesses. Our commitment to the SME sector is best illustrated by the fact that ProCredit has disbursed loans to its clients in Bulgaria totaling nearly EUR 4 billion in the last 16 years", says Reni Peycheva, Executive Director of ProCredit Bank.
BSTDB started cooperating with ProCredit Bank Bulgaria in 2003 and since then has extended several Micro and SME Loan Facilities, which now totals EUR 49 million.
Since 2002, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank has been cooperating with ProCredit banks in Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. So far, BSTDB has channeled more than EUR 100 million to SMEs via ProCredit in the above countries.
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ProCredit Bank (Bulgaria) EAD was founded in October 2001 by an alliance of international development-oriented investors. Today, the bank's sole owner is ProCredit Holding, based in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). ProCredit Holding is the parent company of the development-oriented ProCredit group, which consists of commercial banks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and whose main operational focus is on South Eastern and Eastern Europe. The primary mission of ProCredit Bank EAD is to support the development of SMEs and to foster a favorable environment for the growth of the Bulgarian economy.
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 EUR 3.45 billion. BSTDB is rated long-term “A-” by Standard and Poor’s and “A2” by Moody’s. For information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.
Press contact:
Haroula Christodoulou
Phone: +30 2310 290533
E-mail: cchristodoulou@bstdb.org