BBM

completed

Banco BBM S.A. (the Bank or BBM), which was founded in 1858 and is the country’s oldest private-sector bank, is one of Brazil’s leading mid-sized financial institutions. It provides a range of credit and loan products to smaller as well as medium-sized corporates, has an active – but prudently managed – proprietary trading business, and offers third-party asset management services to investors. As a result of its long history and very conservative business culture, BBM’s operations are characterized by robust credit structuring skills, as well as state-of-the-art risk management systems.The project involves the purchase by IFC from BBM of a local currency-denominated, capital markets instrument with a value at current exchange rates of up to BRL105 million ($50 million-equivalent) and a tenor of 7 years. Funding proceeds from the transaction will be used by BBM to make credit available to medium-sized corporate borrowers. The Bank has targeted the latter group of borrowers as a priority business development area, and its credit exposure to these types of clients has recently been growing rapidly (up approximately 63% in 2005 to an aggregate level of BRL1.5 billion).