IIB enhances its European activities: the Bank supports energy infrastructure in Europe

IIB enhances its European activities: the Bank supports energy infrastructure in Europe

International Investment Bank (IIB) took part in a Senior Secured Term Loan Facility granted to energy holding MET for the amount of HUF 35.84 bn (equivalent to EUR 112 mln) for 7 years for the purposes of financing its operations.

The Facility was arranged by Mandated Lead Arrangers & Bookrunners Citibank N.A. (London Branch), UniCredit S.p.a. and UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt. IIB share in the syndication amounts to HUF 4.8 bn.

“European Region, particularly Central and Eastern Europe, is one of the key and strategically important geographies for IIB. It is represented by 5 our of 9 countries in our shareholder structure, more than half of paid-in capital is from European states, over 54% of our loan portfolio is investments in that region”, IIB Chairman Nikolay Kosov noted, “the Bank’s participation in this deal is a logical progressive continuation of our 2018-2022 Strategy implementation aimed at expansion of the Bank’s activities in the region”.

MET Group is an integrated European energy company. Headquartered in Switzerland, MET is an active participant in the European natural gas, power and oil markets. The Group is present in 15 countries through subsidiaries, 28 national gas markets and 23 international trading hubs. MET has traded 35 BCM of natural gas in 2017 (European natural gas consumption in 2017 was 465 BCM). MET Group also has a substantial power portfolio including a 794MW power plant in Hungary.

International Investment Bank (IIB) – a multilateral development financial institution. The Bank’s shareholders currently include: Bulgaria, Hungary, Social Republic of Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic. Main scope of the Bank’s activities lies within loan and investment activities aimed at implementation of socially important infrastructure projects in the Bank’s target geographies, active support of SMEs and export-import operations carried out to boost and develop economic integration of member states. IIB is the highest rated international financial institutions headquartered in Russia and has recently joined an elite group of A-rated international development banks.