OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2010. The EBRD has provided a USD 20 million loan to IBS Group Holding Limited  (hereinafter “IBS Group”) with an option to convert this debt into an equity stake in a leading Russian provider of information technology services and software development at the end of the three-and-a-half year loan period, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

IBS Group was founded in 1992 and its Global Depository Receipts (GDR’s) are traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under symbols IBSG.F and IBSG.DE (Xetra). The founders and managers of the company currently own 65 percent of its shares. IBS Group Holdings Ltd is registered in the Isle of Man.

The EBRD has an option to convert the principal amount of the loan into newly issued common shares at maturity or have the loan fully repaid.

This transaction is part of the EBRD’s commitment to support Russia’s high-tech sector which holds the key to the modernisation and diversification of the country’s economy and we are proud to work with such a well-known Russian IT provider, said Alain Pilloux, who heads the EBRD’s Telecoms team as Managing Director for Industry and Commerce.

An innovative aspect of this EBRD loan is that USD 4.7 million of it will be earmarked for the expansion of the “IBS Academy” – an educational unit owned by IBS Group which provides unique hi-tech education programs for both undergraduate students and group employees. This body plays a key role in supplying high-quality system integration and software development professionals both for the company itself and for the wider IT industry in Russia.

The IBS Academy has teamed up with a number of leading technological universities in Russia to run a programme which includes on-the-job training within IBS Group companies as part of the curriculum.

The rest of the EBRD loan will supplement the group’s capital expenditure programme for 2010-2011 and will be mainly invested in funding the development of new software products and software development technologies. The loan has already been fully disbursed.

IBS Group is one the largest companies in the Russian high-tech market, holding a leading position in management and IT consulting, offshore programming, the implementation of business applications and IT outsourcing.

IBS Group, which employs over 6,000 staff worldwide, supplies a wide variety of information technology services, including business and IT consulting, business applications implementation, IT outsourcing and software development. IBS Group serves corporate clients in Russia/CIS and around the world; its customer base includes a number of high profile companies in USA and Europe.