The board of directors of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved to provide long-term working capital to Troika Dialog Group, a Russian investment bank and a EBRD client, by lending up to $150 million.
The planned five-year senior loan is part of the Bank’s anti-crisis response. When this deal is signed, it will bring to over $500 million EBRD commitments to the local banking sector in the form of subordinated and other loans, since the credit and liquidity squeeze began in Russia last autumn.
Nicholas Tesseyman, Business Group Director for Financial Institutions at EBRD, said: “It will thus contribute to the stability and liquidity of local capital markets while advancing the Bank’s long-term agenda of encouraging the development of financial intermediation in Russia.”
Ruben Vardanian, Chairman and CEO, Troika, said: “We are delighted to take our long term relationship with EBRD to another level. The loan facility shows a vote of confidence in our business model and is a significant step for Troika in diversifying its funding sources and attracting longer term capital.”
Apart from forging a strategic alliance with Standard Bank in March, Troika has taken measures to confront the economic downturn by launching new products, cutting costs and adjusting its risk-management procedures and policies to adjust to more stringent market conditions.
