The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 50 million to Unicredit Leasing Romania to finance projects of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), with a smaller portion available for mid-cap companies and public sector entities in Romania.

 Mr Andreas Verykios, Director of the EIB's South-East Europe Lending Department, who signed the loan, commented: "The new leasing operation in Romania today is in line with the EIB's priority of strengthening its support for Europe's SMEs and helping to reduce the impact of the current credit crisis by improving the access of SMEs and mid-cap companies to medium and long-term funds on advantageous financial terms. As part of this, the Bank is also simplifying its procedures and broadening the scope of its financing by also covering intangible types of investment. In addition, it is increasing transparency by working towards a more effective transfer of the advantage of EIB funds to the final beneficiaries".

 The new credit line will co-finance small and medium-sized projects in the areas of industry, including agriculture and agro-industry, transport, environmental protection, energy and energy saving, health and education and services, including tourism.

Through its credit lines, EIB funds finance projects usually implemented by SMEs (with fewer than 250 employees) and mid-cap companies (with more than 250 and fewer than 3 000 employees). In this effort, the EIB cooperates with well established financing institutions that know the local market, have SMEs, mid-cap companies and public sector entities as their customers and dispose of a well developed network.

Background

The task of the EIB, the European Union's financing institution, is to contribute to the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member States by financing sound investment

EIB loans to partner financial institutions have been developed as a successful tool for providing long-term funding for smaller projects with total costs of up to EUR 25 million. Since 1990, the EIB has signed loan contracts in Romania amounting to some EUR 6.1 billion, out of which approx. EUR 375 million (including the current loan) supported SME and municipality investments.