A syndicate of banks has signed a €10mn syndicated term loan facility for Municipal Bank Plc of Bulgaria.

The margin is 175bp per year over Euribor and an initial maturity of 24 months. After the first two years, the lenders have an extension option for another 24 months. The facility will be used for finance transactions of the borrower’s customers.

The transaction was very well received by the market and the mandated lead arranger, RZB, raised €27mn. The borrower however decided not to increase the facility amount and to close the transaction at €10mn.
Lead arrangers are: Byblos Bank Europe; National Bank of Egypt (UK); Piraeus Bank, London; and HSH Nordbank, Luxembourg.
WGZ-Bank is a co-arranger.

Lead managers are: MKB Bank and Bankgesellschaft Berlin.

Managers are: Oberbank; Vakifbank International; and Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International.

Municipal Bank was established in 1996 as Sofia Municipal Bank and in 1998 renamed Municipal Bank Plc. The borrower is majority owned by the Municipality of Sofia with a 67% shareholding, the remaining shares being held by private companies and major Bulgarian municipalities.

Municipal offers commercial, consumer and housing loans, credit cards and financial advisory services and is rapidly developing services in the field of electronic banking. Furthermore, it services the central and local budgets and acts as a project manager, leading financial advisor and servicing bank of a number of large investment projects for the municipal infrastructure of the City of Sofia (transport, heating, water).