BCR gets $200 million loan

The Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) has attracted a $200m syndicated loan from the international financial markets, managing to double the value that had originally been announced.

The amount (half the value of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund – IMF) is quite significant for a Romanian bank, since this is the first syndicated loan launched on the international market by a Romanian financial institution.

“This accounts for a necessary diversification of our portfolio of attracted resources, in terms of origin and maturity, at convenient costs. We intend to actively support the growth of our clients and to team up with them in order to seize the medium and long-term business opportunities provided by the Romanian economy,” BCR president Nicolae Danila said.

The loan matures in 5 years and benefits from a four-year grace period. The money will be used for boosting lending. The annual interest starts from LIBOR plus two percentage points. The annual LIBOR rate revolved around 1.37% at the end of last week. A consortium made up of Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG, Citibank, Erste Bank and Raiffeisen Zentralbank brokered the operation.
oana.nuta@zf.ro