EBRD lends Romania's BRD EUR 30 mln for SME energy investments financing

The European bank for Reconstruction and development (EBRD) will offer a EUR 30 million financing package to BRD Groupe Societe Generale to support sustainable energy investments by small and medium companies (SMEs) and municipalities or municipality-owned companies. The EBRD financing will be used to support SMEs with loans of up to EUR 1 million for investments in projects such as commercial energy efficiency investments, stand-alone small scale renewable energy investments, building sector energy efficiency and renewable energy investments. In total, EUR 20 million will be available for SMEs. Municipalities will receive loans of up to EUR 5 million each, enabling them to improve the energy performance of municipal infrastructure, including buildings. “Compared with their counterparts in western Europe, Romanian enterprises and municipalities spend a larger percentage of their overall costs on energy bills. The EBRD financing, extended through BRD Groupe Société Générale, will enable private businesses and municipalities to implement projects that will reduce their energy intensity, and strengthen their competitiveness and operational efficiency,” said Sylvia Gansser-Potts, EBRD Director for Financial Institutions, EU Banks. Since the beginning of its operations in Romania, the EBRD has committed close to EUR 5.7 billion to various sectors of the country’s economy. editor@romania-insider.com