Team Europe: EIB and ProCredit to support faster recovery of SMEs from COVID-19 in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine with €55 million

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union, will provide €55 million for the ProCredit group to create new credit lines for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova and support a faster recovery of their economies from the COVID-19 pandemic. The credit lines can be made available in multiple currencies, including in the local currencies.

This transaction provides much-needed financing to companies in the three countries to address working capital issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The EIB loan will also strengthen the national banking sectors in the three countries and reinforce their ability to finance their economic recovery.

The credit lines are a part of Team Europe’s overall response to COVID-19 in support of the sustainable social and economic recovery of the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood. It reinforces both SMEs which are the backbone of national economies and a major source of employment in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as the financial sectors in these three countries, boosting their ability to drive the economic recovery from the pandemic.

EIB Vice-President Teresa Czerwińska, who is in charge of operations in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, said: “Team Europe continues to support the economic recovery of EU partner countries in the Eastern Neighbourhood from COVID-19, reinforcing pan-European solidarity in these difficult times. We have thus created new sources of financing at a moment when such aid is crucial for the survival of our SMEs. We look forward to expanding our partnership in the future, so as to allow even more companies to benefit from our shared dedication to help SMEs grow and develop.”

The management of ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA, the parent company of the ProCredit group, said:

“Thanks to the well-established relationships with our clients and partners such as the EIB, we have been able to provide efficient support to numerous SMEs during these turbulent months. These EIB credit lines will help SMEs in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine to overcome short-term liquidity shortages and will provide much-needed support in local currencies for their investment projects. We expect that this will open them up to new lines of business and opportunities and thus will support economic recovery in the coming years. We are confident that this will be stimulated by a structural shift towards investments that are climate-friendly as well as socially and ecologically sustainable.”

The EU bank investment in three new credit lines for SMEs in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine is a direct response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Covered by guarantees from the European Union, the EIB investment in the ProCredit group enables the local banks to increase their lending activities without jeopardising the long-term stability of the country’s financial sector or its ability to support the economic recovery from the pandemic in the long term.

The credit lines will be even more attractive due to the more flexible terms enabled by the EIB’s COVID-19 emergency measures. These emergency measures are part of Team Europe’s efforts to support partner countries in the Eastern Neighbourhood during the pandemic.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.

The EIB in the Eastern Neighbourhood:

Through our lending to countries in the Eastern Neighbourhood – Belarus, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia – the European Investment Bank plays a vital role in building important social and economic infrastructure. Our projects develop the private sector and countries’ resilience to climate change. At the same time, our presence reinforces relations with the European Union and its Member States.

In the Eastern Neighbourhood region, the EIB focuses on creating quality jobs and fostering economic growth, developing industry and infrastructure, supporting innovation, and providing affordable and clean energy. Climate action, in line with the Paris Agreement, is a top priority throughout EIB lending activities. Through our financing, we act as a catalyst to attract the funding needed to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. For more information on EIB activities in the Eastern Neighbourhood, please follow this link.

ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA, based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is the parent company of the development-oriented ProCredit group, which consists of commercial banks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In addition to its operational focus on South Eastern and Eastern Europe, the ProCredit group is also active in South America and Germany. The company’s shares are traded on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The anchor shareholders of ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA include the strategic investors Zeitinger Invest and ProCredit Staff Invest (the investment vehicle for ProCredit staff), the Dutch DOEN Participaties BV, KfW Development Bank and IFC (part of the World Bank Group). As the group’s superordinated company according to the German Banking Act, ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA is supervised on a consolidated level by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin) and the German Bundesbank. For additional information, visit: www.procredit-holding.com.