Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), majority owned by Austrian Erste Group, signed a EUR 50 million loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for project financing of small and medium-enterprises (SMEs), midcap companies and public entities in Romania.

The loan will co-finance projects developed by SMEs and midcap companies in the industry and services sectors, while energy efficiency investments will receive grant support from the European Commission under the SME Finance Facility Energy Efficiency Window. This is a program developed by the EIB and EC to reduce carbon emissions in construction and industry.

BCR has previously taken two loans of EUR 75 million each in 2009 and 2011 for financing SMEs active in agriculture, production, tourism and transportation. Since 2000,  the lender has financed over 10,000 projects  for which total co-financing exceeds EUR 1 billion.

“Our successful cooperation is further supporting the absorption of EU funds in Romania, considering more than 75 percent of EIB funds are allocated to projects developed with EU financing,” said Wolfgang Schoiswohl, BCR vice-president.

The EIB signed loan agreements worth EUR 917 million in 2011, while the figure for 2012 stands at EUR 600 million. Lending in the last five years exceeded EUR 4 billion.

Source: business-review.ro