The board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) has approved US$150mn in financing to be utilised by Citigroup for business in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The agreement supplements a 2002 Opic-Citigroup facility for Russia and Central Asia, to which Opic also provided US$150mn. That facility has supported eight investments in Russia and Kazakhstan, in sectors ranging from food services to telecommunications.

Similar to the original portfolio, the new financing will target investments in the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
In addition, eastern European investments will be included, in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro.

Citigroup and Opic will share the risk for individual loans originated under the facility, each of which will be cleared by Opic for protection of environmental, human and workers’ rights and consistent with Citigroup’s own environmental and social risk management policies.