Baku, Finance Time. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank made available a USD 5 million SME loan facility to Unibank in Azerbaijan. Unibank will use the proceeds of the BSTDB loan for financing of specific projects for creation, modernization and capacity expansion and also diversification of products and services and working capital requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises in Azerbaijan. The term of the facility is 5 years.
The BSTDB financing will provide the much needed medium-term funding for SME sector of Azerbaijan, contribute to job creation as well as to institutional development and business growth of the client bank. This is the second SME loan facility provided to Unibank, after successful use of the first one provided in 2008 in the amount of USD 5 million. Besides, a Trade Finance Facility in the amount of USD 3 million has been available for use since 2005, under which the aggregate amount of disbursements has reached to USD 15.7 million.
“We are pleased to continue our cooperation with Unibank and to support Azeri SMEs, which will get better services and easier access to much-needed cash for further development”, said Mustafa Boran, BSTDB Vice President Banking.
"With this financing BSTDB and Unibank continues its long-standing relationship. As one of the bank’s focus activities is on financing of small and medium-sized enterprises, the project contributes to securing jobs in this field. As one of biggest commercial bank in Azerbaijan, we have a special responsibility in this issue, said Faig Huseynov, chairman of Unibank` s Board.
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Unibank was established in 2002 as a result of the merger of two private commercial banks of Azerbaijan - MBANK (est. 1992) and PROMTEKHBANK (est. 1994). Unibank has signed Equity Participation Agreements with EBRD (15.15% shares) in 2003 and with DEG (8.33% shares) in 2005. Being the 7th largest bank in the country with a 3.42% market share, Unibank is active player in the local lending market with strong presence throughout the country and good brand recognition.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters is in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is SDR 3 billion (appx. EUR 3.3 billion). BSTDB is rated long-term A by Standard and Poor’s and A3 by Moody’s.
