Green for Growth Fund, Southeast Europe (GGF) said it entered into a partnership with ProCredit Bank Serbia to support green lending in that country.
ProCredit Bank is market leader there in terms of energy efficiency lending with a strong focus on agricultural and small and medium enterprise (SME) lending, the press release added. The EUR 20 million senior loan provided by the fund will serve to further expand this business line while keeping a strong emphasis on replacing energy inefficient machinery, such as agricultural equipment and processing machinery. In addition, the loan will serve to finance renewable energy projects, the two partner institutions said.
„With its strong position in green lending to the agricultural and SME sectors, ProCredit Bank is a great addition to our network of partner lending institutions,” said Christopher Knowles, the fund’s chairman. „ProCredit Bank is also the fund’s first partner in Serbia for financing renewable energy projects, an essential component in the greening of the Serbian economy.”
At ProCredit Bank, responsibility means providing high quality services and, above all, a thorough credit analysis, said Igor Anić, a member of ProCredit Bank’s Executive Board. „But responsibility does not stop there. We believe that responsibility extends to our mutual surroundings, which should be preserved for the generations to come. The active promotion of environmental protection and energy efficiency standards plays a crucial role, along with favourable credit support, in enabling clients to achieve those standards and make their own contribution to the environment.”
GGF provides refinancing to financial institutions for on-lending to enterprises and private households seeking to finance energy efficiency projects. It also invests directly in small to medium-scale renewable energy projects. GGF was initiated as a public-private partnership in December 2009 by the KfW Development Bank of Germany and the European Investment Bank (EIB) with the financial support of the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The fund said its investors are donor agencies, international financial institutions and institutional private investors, such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and the Development Bank of Austria (OeEB). GGF, registered in Luxembourg as a Sicav (variable capital investment company), is privately managed by Oppenheim Asset Management Services S. à r. l., Luxembourg.
