Partnership Agreement Signed Between European Investment Fund and the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank (BSTDB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to increase their collaboration in the region, particularly in Greece. This partnership will allow the institutions to work together with financial instruments, such as equity investment platforms, portfolio guarantees operations and SME loan securitisation operations.

BSTDB President Ihsan Ugur Delikanli, commented: “This partnership agreement will enable us to use comparative advantages of both EIF and BSTDB and generate synergies for the benefit of our common countries of operation, in particular for the SME sector development. We look forward to combining our regional knowledge with EIF’s  financial engineering expertise.”

EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert added: “I am delighted to be signing this MOU with the BSTDB which will allow us to have a bigger impact in the regions where we both operate. It is very important for EIF to work closely with partners such as BSTDB who have a strong regional expertise. This is of particular relevance for Greece, where EIF is working on mobilising additional resources into the country, both in the equity and the debt space.”

This signature reflects the common objective to rapidly launch concrete initiatives for the benefit of SMEs and entrepreneurs.

Background

About the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion. BSTDB is rated long-term “A-” by Standard and Poor’s and “A2” by Moody’s. For more information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.

About the European Investment Fund

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 by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops both 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 the EIF's work under EFSI is available here.

Press contacts:

EIF: David Yormesor
Tel.: +352 42 66 88 346, e-mail: d.yormesor@eif.org   

Black Sea Trade & Development Bank:  Haroula Christodoulou
Tel.: + 30 2310 290533, e-mail: cchristodoulou@bstdb.org