The European Investment Fund and Coop Pank signed agreement to provide EUR 16 million for Estonian SMEs

An agreement has been signed between the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Coop Pank, which will allow Coop Bank to issue additional 16 million euros of commercial loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in Estonia.

“The unsecured loan agreement concluded with the European Investment Fund aims to support the businesses operating in Estonia and to help them attain growth and their development goals,” explained Hans Pajoma, member of the board and business customer banking executive of Coop Pank.

In accordance with the agreement, the EIF will allocate 8 million euros to Coop Pank for a maturity period of 10 years while the bank is to add the same amount of its own contribution, which means that financing options in the total amount of 16 million euros will become available for Estonian companies.

“With the EIF’s assistance, we will be able to finance businesses which comply with the criteria applying to small and medium-sized enterprises effective in the European Union, that is, the number of employees needs to be below 500. The amount of loan per one customer is to be within the range between 25,000 and 500,000 euros, and the term of the loan agreement, up to 10 years,” Pajoma added.

The agreement was signed at the European Commission’s SME Assembly which is taking place in Tallinn, Estonia this year during the annual SME week.

EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert said: “EIF is delighted to sign this loan agreement with one of our new financial intermediaries - Coop Pank, to support Estonian SMEs, at the European Commission’s SME Assembly today. SMEs are essential for creating jobs and new opportunities for local communities and I am convinced that this EUR 16 million agreement will help to bolster the SME growth agenda here in Estonia and further afield.”

Coop Pank is a universal bank based on Estonian capital, whose majority shareholder is Estonia’s only cooperative retail business group, Coop Eesti. Coop Pank aims to put the synergy generated by the interaction of retail business and banking to good use and to bring everyday banking services closer to people’s homes.

Its subsidiaries counted in, Coop Pank provides over 200 jobs in its headquarters and in fourteen branch offices all over Estonia. Within the first nine months of this year, Coop Pank’s loan portfolio increased by 40 per cent and reached 215 million euros by the end of September. During the same period, the deposit portfolio grew by 22 per cent, having reached 309 million euros. Coop Pank’s net profit in the said 9 months was 4.4 million euros.

Consolidating 19 associations, Coop Eesti has around 350 stores, 80,000 cooperative shareholders and 600,000 loyal customers.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. More information on EIF's work under the EFSI is available: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/efsi/index.htm

Additional information:

Tiina Tali
Marketing Director
Coop Pank AS
Tel.: +372 555 24273
E-mail: tiina.tali@cooppank.ee