BCR Leasing gets EUR 30 mln from European Investment Bank to finance small and medium Romanian companies

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will lend EUR 30 million to Romanian financial institution BCR Leasing to support lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), midcap companies and public entities in the sectors of industry, services and infrastructure in Romania, according to an announcement from EIB. This is the second tranche of a loan of EUR 75 million approved by the EIB following the successful disbursement of the first part of the loan of EUR 15 million signed earlier this year. “The financing of projects implemented by SMEs and midcap companies is a key policy objective of the EIB in Romania, as the SME and midcap sector represents the engine of growth, innovation and creation of new employment,” said Mihai Tanasescu, EIB Vice-President responsible for Romania. This loan is in line with the EIB’s priority of assisting Europe’s SMEs. The EIB loan will support SMEs’ investments related to the purchase, renovation or extension of tangible assets (other than land), R&D, and the building-up of distribution networks in domestic and other markets inside the EU, covering medium and long-term working capital needs to finance their regular trading cycle. Public sector entities implementing small and medium-scale infrastructure or sustainable community investments will be eligible for support for improving public services in the fields of transport, energy, waste, telecommunications, water, health and education as well as social housing. BCR Leasing isn’t the only financial institution which got a loan from EIB this year. Garanti Leasing, in March, and UniCredit Leasing, in June, got EUR 50 million financings each. In May this year, EIB also signed a loan contract to provide EUR 300 million to finance priority projects under the Romanian Rural Development Programme for 2007-2013. EIB loan signatures in Romania amounted to EUR 534 million in 2013, up 59 percent compared to 2012. Over the past five years (2009-2013), the bank has invested EUR 3.7 billion in the Romanian economy. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com