RI Southern Europe Housing and Energy Efficiency Project

completed

As of May 15, 2006, proposed project has been split in two in order to accommodate the different timelines for funding that have emerged from RI NWBs since the issuance of the SPI on March 13, 2006. Senior loans in the amount up to $46 million to RIs NWBs in Kosovo, Bosnia and Serbia will be included in the first phase of the project under a new name of “Southern Europe Housing and Energy Efficiency Project” to support the development of housing finance products in these markets. The rest of the facility will be considered separately at a later date and a further update to this SPI will be issued at that time. The project entails a facility of up to $240 million equivalent, comprising of a loan to support the growth of Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG (RI) network banks and finance companies (NWBs) in the Central, Eastern and Southern European region (the Region), and an equity investment in Joint Stock Post Pension Bank “Aval” (Aval) in Ukraine. The project builds upon IFC’s long standing partnership with RI and its NWBs, and is targeted at supporting the expansion of financing for SMEs and mortgage loans in the frontier markets in Europe.The proposed Loan Facility consists of senior loans to RI’s NWBs in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, including Ukraine, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo and a trade finance line to RZB Bosnia. All are existing IFC clients, with the exception of the NWB in Kosovo, and have strong positions in their markets. The funding will support the expansion of the RI’s leasing companies in Serbia and Bosnia, term lending to the growing SME sectors, and the development of housing finance products in Ukraine, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo.