EBRD and Banca Intesa Beograd sign financing package of €72 million

This article is brought to you in association with EBRD.

• EBRD extends risk-sharing facility of up to €50 million to Banca Intesa Beograd
• The Bank is also providing a €15 million loan under its SME Go Green Programme
• The package includes a senior loan of up to €7 million under the Western Balkans Women in Business Programme

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a financing package of €72 million with Banca Intesa Beograd that aims to boost the competitiveness and trade potential of businesses in Serbia, as well as further the country’s green transition and promote financial inclusion.

The package includes three financing facilities: a new risk-sharing framework; a loan under the SME Go Green Programme co-funded by the European Union; and a senior loan under the Western Balkans Women in Business programme.

Banca Intesa will be the first Serbian bank to benefit from a new risk-sharing framework of up to €50 million. The framework is designed to allow the EBRD to share partner banks’ exposure to local large or small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through an unfunded risk participation. The EBRD will guarantee up to 65 per cent of each individual sub-loan that Banca Intesa provides its eligible clients. The Bank’s commitment under the agreement could reach up to €50 million.

The €15 million loan signed under the SME Go Green Programme will be used to provide sub-loans to eligible SMEs in Serbia. They will then use the funds to invest in sustainability practices; adopt internationally recognised quality standards; scale up green economy investments (in particular, to ‘green’ agribusiness supply chains); and promote more equitable access to climate finance and other finance for women-led SMEs. Banca Intesa will aim to deliver 70 per cent of the proceeds to projects eligible under the Green Economy Transition (GET) initiative.

The senior loan of up to €7 million is for on-lending to eligible women-led SMEs in line with the criteria under the second phase of the Western Balkans Women in Business programme. This is the seventh consecutive loan to Banca Intesa under this programme following the success of the previous facilities. The loan will contribute to women’s economic inclusion by helping women-led SMEs to access finance and business advisory services.

Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the EBRD, and Darko Popović, CEO of Banca Intesa, signed the financing package today.

Odile Renaud-Basso said: “We are excited to collaborate with Banca Intesa to broaden financing opportunities for growing companies. The EBRD’s risk-participation mechanism will help Banca Intesa manage capital and risk concentration, thereby promoting credit growth for the benefit of the real economy, and the SME Go Green Programme and Western Balkans Women in Business Programme Phase II credit lines will ensure women’s economic inclusion and scaling up of green economy investments.”

Darko Popović commented: “I am very pleased that, as a long-term partner of the EBRD in supporting the economy and citizens of Serbia, we are joining forces once again to bring another innovative financial instrument to the local market, which will contribute to the long-term economic growth of our country. As the first bank to join the EBRD risk-sharing framework in Serbia, we will be in a position to provide support for the financial needs of not only SMEs, but also large companies on an even greater scale and help them implement significant investment plans in a flexible way. At the same time, the credit lines signed today will enable us to ensure even stronger support for green transformation and economic empowerment of women as key prerequisites for creating a sustainable, inclusive and resilient economy.”

Banca Intesa, a member of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, is a long-standing partner of the EBRD. It is the leading bank in Serbia by total assets, capital and customer deposits.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Serbia and has invested more than €9 billion through 355 projects, most of which have supported the private sector. The Bank’s focus in Serbia is on supporting private sector competitiveness, green energy transition and sustainable infrastructure.