BOP Patria MSME Loan

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 The project entails an up to EUR20 million, up to 5-year with 1-year grace senior loan for IFC’s own account, under the COVID-19 Base of the Pyramid Program, to Patria Bank SA (“Patria” or “the Bank”), a publicly listed commercial bank on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. IFC’s loan will be used to increase access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises (“MSMEs”) in Romania with 50 percent of proceeds earmarked to women-owned SMEs (“WSMEs”).  The Project is expected to be supported by WEOF and We-Fi in the form of a performance-based incentive (PBI) of up to US$0.112 million (equivalent to up to 0.56% of the total project cost of EUR 20 million) to incentivize on-lending to underserved WSMEs and WVSEs in Romania. The estimated subsidy to be provided by WEOF and We-Fi assumes that the Project will fully reach the agreed impact and shall only be paid out upon achievement of the pre-defined gender targets. WEOF is an initiative which IFC is undertaking in partnership with the Goldman Sachs Foundation to help expand access to capital for women entrepreneurs in developing countries and demonstrate the commercial viability of investing in women and We-Fi is a multi-donor initiative to address barriers to financial access and provide related services that address public and private-sector constraints to women entrepreneurs and women-led SMEs across the world, thereby promoting jobs and boosting economic growth. As is the case with all of IFC’s blended concessional finance co-investments, this project has been assessed against the Enhanced Blended Concessional Finance Principles for DFI Private Sector Operations adopted by IFC and more than 20 other DFIs in 2017.  Further information on these Enhanced Principles, IFC’s blended finance approach and governance and details and historical information on estimated subsidy levels in IFC’s blended finance portfolio can be found at:  www.ifc.org/blendedfinance. IFC is open to engaging further with financial institutions and consider structures similar to the one proposed in this investment with the support of blended finance when appropriate.