OREANDA-NEWS. August 04, 2009. 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 EUR1.2 billion, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

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

These include a EUR 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 EUR 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 EUR 150 million to EUR 170 million. The EBRD is retaining EUR 80 million, while EUR 70 million is syndicated to a group of commercial banks, consisting of Erste Bank, Societe Generale, UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) will offer a parallel loan of EUR 20 million.

EUR 25 million of the loan offered to Konzum was subscribed by Zagrebacka banka d.d., part of the UniCredit Group (EUR 10 million), Privredna banka Zagreb d.d., part of Intesa Sanpaolo (€10 million), and Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d.d. (EUR 5 million). The EBRD is retaining EUR 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 EUR 150 million loan to Kaufland’s Romanian and Bulgarian subsidiaries, of which EUR 50 was subscribed by Societe Generale. In June the EBRD syndicated EUR 20 million of the EUR 41 million loan for Turkey’s Sisecam bottling plant in NW Russia to Societe Generale and ING.

Other key deals signed in the recent months include a EUR 218 million syndicated loan to Mobile TeleSystems in Russia, of which EUR 103 million was subscribed by six participants; EUR 275 million syndicated loan to OMV's Romanian subsidiary Petrom, of which EUR 125 was syndicated to eight banks; and the US 250 million syndicated loan to Russian independent oil services company Integra, US175 million of which was subscribed by eight participants.

Of the nine deals finalised so far this year, EUR 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.