Raiffeisen gets EUR 80 mln from Council of Europe Development Bank for Romania small and medium enterprises loans

Raiffeisen Bank and Raiffeisen Leasing borrowed EUR 80 million from Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), which will fund Romanian small and medium enterprises, as well as public sector entities. The bank will get EUR 50 million of the loan, while the leasing subsidiary, the rest. “Funds from this loan will become available starting December” said James Stewart, Vice President of Raiffeisen Bank. The bank recently inked a similar deal with the European Investment Bank (EIB), for some EUR 45 million, out of which EUR 30 million went to the bank and the rest to the leasing company. EIB funds will co-finance both investment, as well as working capital projects in the areas of industry and services, as well as small and medium-scale infrastructure schemes promoted by local authorities. Raiffeisen Bank Romania ended the first half of the year with a net profit of EUR 50 million, a growth of 28 percent on the same period of 2011. With 2 million clients and 359 bank units in Romania, Raiffeisen Bank has 5,700 employees in the country. editor@romania-insider.com