The UniCredit Group has announced that it has improved its cooperation with The European Investment Bank (EIB), to implement the joint action plan of the multilateral lenders in central and eastern Europe – the EIB Group, the EBRD, and the World Bank Group – who have committed to provide up to €24.5 billion lending to the SME sector hit by the global economic crisis.
Reportedly, EIB will provide the largest part, with some €11 billion in SME lending facilities in central and eastern Europe, while UniCredit Group subsidiaries and leasing companies throughout the region with new financing in 2009 exceeding €1.2 billion.
It has added that EIB and UniCredit also work together on a swift allocation of the funds. The interested countries include Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Republic of Serbia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.
The proposed credit lines implement the EIB’s priority to support Europe’s SMEs and help to reduce the impact of the current credit crisis by improving the access of SMEs and larger companies to medium and long-term funds on advantageous financial terms. As part of this effort EIB simplified its procedures and broadened the scope of its financing by also covering intangible investments and working capital. In addition the bank increased transparency in the mechanism for the transfer of financial advantage to final beneficiaries.
Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen, vice-president of EIB, said: “This is happening in parallel to EIB support to UniCredit Group’s entities in other countries: in Austria for example new financing for a total of €375m, relating to SME loans (€200 m), leasing (€100 m) and risk sharing (€75 m) have been approved”.
