EBRD sets fast pace with syndications despite challenging market conditions

The EBRD has kept up a rapid pace in the syndicated loans market, defying difficult market conditions and pulling together nine deals so far this year, worth a total €1.2 billion.

Recently the EBRD has completed two syndicated loans worth a total of €220 million.

These include a €170 million loan for Romania’s Turceni, the largest lignite-fired power plant in Romania, to finance the upgrade of one power generation unit, and a €50 million loan to Konzum, the Agrokor-owned leading retailer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to finance the company’s regional expansion and strengthen its capital base.
The loan to Turceni was oversubscribed, allowing the EBRD to increase the financing from €150 million to €170 million. The EBRD is retaining €80 million, while €70 million is syndicated to a group of commercial banks, consisting of Erste Bank, Société Générale, UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) will offer a parallel loan of €20 million.

€25 million of the loan offered to Konzum was subscribed by Zagrebačka banka d.d., part of the UniCredit Group (€10 million), Privredna banka Zagreb d.d., part of Intesa Sanpaolo (€10 million), and Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d.d. (€5 million). The EBRD is retaining €25 million on its account.

“The successful syndications led by the EBRD demonstrate the Bank’s key role in mobilising investments needed to support economies in the current challenging market conditions,” said Lorenz Jorgensen, EBRD Head of Loan Syndications.

Earlier this month the EBRD syndicated a €150 million loan to Kaufland’s Romanian and Bulgarian subsidiaries, of which €50 was subscribed by Société Générale. In June the EBRD syndicated €20 million of the €41 million loan for Turkey’s Sisecam bottling plant in NW Russia to Société Générale and ING.

Other key deals signed in the recent months include a €218 million syndicated loan to Mobile TeleSystems in Russia, of which €103 million was subscribed by six participants; €275 million syndicated loan to OMV's Romanian subsidiary Petrom, of which €125 was syndicated to eight banks; and the $250 million syndicated loan to Russian independent oil services company Integra, $175 million of which was subscribed by eight participants.

Of the nine deals finalised so far this year, €600 million have been syndicated out to 28 different participants.

These syndications financed projects in power and energy, agribusiness, telecommunications, municipal infrastructure and financial sectors in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.