Baku, Finance Time. Today AccessBank announcedthat it attracted a USD 60 million syndicated loan arranged by Raiffeisen Bank International AG and joined by 16 participating foreign banks.The transaction was launched in January 2014 with the target of raising USD 25m. The strong interest of international investors led to a heavy oversubscription of the facility and enabled the Bank to increase the facility amount to USD 60m. The term of the loan facility is one year and it is priced at an interest rate of Libor+3.25%.

“This is a landmark transaction for AccessBank being the first syndicated loan transaction in the history of the Bankwith solely commercial banks as investors. We are delighted about with the composition of participant banks which cover 11 countries mostly fromthe CEE, CIS, Middle East and East Asia region. This truly reflects the investors’ high confidence inAccessBank and in general in Azerbaijan’s economy and banking system” Chief Executive Officer of AccessBank, Michael Hoffman said.

Among the 16 foreign banks that participate in the transaction are: AKA AusfuhrkreditGesellschaftmbH (AKA), BancaTransilvania SA, OJSCB Bank ZENIT, Burgan Bank S.A.K., Credit Europe Bank N.V., Sviaz-Bank, Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V., Baltikums Bank AS, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank Ltd. (London Branch), Eurocity Bank AG, KDB Bank Europe Ltd., Mega International Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. (Amsterdam Branch), Misr Bank-Europe GmbH, ŠiauliųBankas AB, Banque de Commerce et de Placements SA, Oberbank AG.

AccessBank was established in 2002 by Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, EBRD, IFC, KfW, a German consulting company LFS Financial Systems GmbH and AccessHolding. AccessBank provides loans to micro and small businesses and has a wide network of branches in Azerbaijan employing about 2000 people. Fitch Ratings assessed AccessBank as BB+, the highest credit rating among all banks in Azerbaijan.