OREANDA-NEWS. July 24, 2009. Having been picked in a tender for crediting instrument (“Open credit fund” (hereinafter – AKF)) AB DnB NORD Bankas has signed a bilateral agreement with the state guarantee institution UAB “Investiciju ir verslo garantijos” (hereinafter – INVEGA), that will open the possibility for the bank to extend cheaper credits for financing investment projects of small and medium-sized enterprises, reported the press-centre of DnB NORD Bankas.

Under this financial engineering instrument of EU structural funds a small or medium-size enterprise shall be eligible for up to LTL 1.5 million credit from AKF fund. AKF shall fund up to 75 percent of the credit while AB DnB NORD Bankas will additionally allocate at least one-fourth of the bank’s funds to such an investment project. The contractual conditions stipulate that AB DnB NORD Bankas’ shall apply up to 3.1 percent margin for such a loan to be added to a 3-month VILIBOR rate.

This is the second agreement signed by AB DnB NORD Bankas with INVEGA this month. Under the agreement signed last week AB DnB NORD Bankas is entitled to provide credits to business backed with INVEGA guarantees, including loans to large companies facing temporary financial difficulties due to sharp economic downturn.

“We expect the European Commission to take into account that in the environment of economic slowdown Lithuanian businesses feel a lack of working capital. Then, in cooperation with INVEGA, we will be able to offer more favourable rates not only for credits extended to finance investment projects, but also for new credits lines,” – said Evaldas Ruzgys, Manager of Product Development Department of AB DnB NORD Bankas.

At the end of June the corporate portfolio of AB DnB NORD Bankas was worth of LTL 5.7 billion.

Having the highest long-term sovereign rating ever assigned by the rating agency “FitchRatings” to Lithuanian commercial banks (long-term IDR affirmed at A) AB DnB NORD Bankas is part of DnB NORD banking group established by the largest Norway’s bank DnB NOR (51 percent stake, long-term IDR at AA- from “Standard & Poor's”) and the largest North Germany’s bank NORD/LB (49 percent stake, long-term IDR at A from “FitchRatings”).