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Black Sea Trade & Development Bank (BSTDB) and Russian leasing company Europlan have signed a three-year loan agreement for US$11mn. Europlan will use these funds to finance lease deals with its core clients – Russian small and mid-sized businesses. The borrower already has a successful credit history with BSTDB’s first SME leasing facility of US$5mn signed in 2003, which was fully disbursed and is currently under repayment.

  • “This operation strengthens the BSTDB efforts to further support the development of leasing in Russia, which would provide medium-term funding for capital expenditures of SMEs in line with our country strategy for Russia. Besides, it illustrates the strategic objective to develop our SME financing programme not only through local commercial banks, but non-bank financial institutions as well,” says Mikhail Jernov, BSTDB vice-president, banking.

     

    “Europlan has built strong business relations with the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank, and we hope to expand further our cooperation,” says Nikolay Zinoviev, president and CEO of Europlan. “In 2006 we plan to sign more than 6,000 lease deals with SMEs and double total number of active leases managing portfolio of more than 10,000 leases. The financing from BSTDB will help us to accomplish such a challenging plan.

     

    “Within three years our company has raised US$100mn in long-term financing from the leading international financial institutions. I want to emphasise that we receive second round financing from BSTDB that proves our financial stability and excellent credit history.”

     

    Europlan is an independent Russian leasing company and an investee company of Baring Vostok Capital Partners and Capital International. Since its inception in 1999, Europlan has been providing corporate fleet, equipment and commercial real estate leases to small and medium enterprises across Russia through a nationwide network covering 40 regions. According to the “Russian leasing market 2004 “survey Europlan is ranked as leading company in passenger car leasing and leading company in terms of the total number of active lease contracts.

     

    The total number of Europlan’s active leases is around 6,000. Among Europlan’s creditors are such international financial institutions as EBRD, IFC, US Ex-Im, BSTDB, DEG, Opic, and others.

     

    BSTDB is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. With an authorised capital of SDR1bn (US$1.4bn), the bank supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing financing for investment projects and trade transactions in public and private sectors in its member countries.

     

    Since the commencement of operations in 1999, BSTDB has approved financing in excess of US$660mn for about 60 projects and trade transactions in the Black Sea region.