Raiffeisen raises another $100m for expansion

Raiffeisen Bank has authorised four international banks to arrange a $100 million syndicated loan, maturing in three years, which it will use to fund the development of its operations. The four banks are Bank Austria Creditanstalt, DZ Bank, JP Morgan and Mizuho Corporate Bank. The bank has also recently concluded a 44 million euro share capital increase for the same purpose. Its main shareholder, Austrian Raiffeisen Group, contributed more than 43.89 million euros during this operation. Raiffeisen Bank Romania’s capital is 99.35% held by Raiffeisen International, while the remaining 0.65% is scattered among 17,767 minor shareholders, 16,410 of which are legal entities. The fast-paced expansion of the bank was also backed with a bond issue released on the domestic market in May that raised some 34 million euros. The bank’s chairman, Steven van Groningen says the money obtained from the syndicated loan is needed to support the goals set by Raiffeisen for its quick portfolio and market share expansion across all the banking segments. “We have the support of the majority shareholder, which made a significant contribution to the bank’s capital increase. The first half results confirmed the growth forecasts, which explains our resorting to the international financial markets in September,” the Raiffeisen official said. ZF