OTP Bank offers small and medium-sized businesses loans for the purchase of equipment with the possibility of reimbursement of part of the costs financed by the bank. Such loans are provided as part of the EBRD’s SME Competitiveness Program in the Eastern Partnership countries.
According to Natalia Kondratchuk, Director of Corporate Finance at OTP Bank: “The purpose of the program is to develop lending aimed at purchasing energy-efficient machinery and equipment by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and investing in energy-saving technologies. In particular, such financing is intended to meet the needs of local agricultural producers to upgrade their agricultural machinery fleet with products of well-known global brands. In doing so, the borrower will be able to claim compensation for part of the costs financed by the bank’s credit facilities.”
The amount of compensation depends on the type of assets acquired and can reach 20% of the loan proceeds. The reimbursement will be made in euros, approximately within a month after the borrower has documented the intended use of the funds and the EBRD has verified the documents.
The average amount of loans under the program is expected to be the hryvnia equivalent of EUR 300 thousand, but the amount of each loan is determined by the details of the investment project, which must be acceptable to the EBRD. The minimum loan term is 24 months and the maximum is 60 months. The loan is secured by a pledge of the purchased equipment, a financial guarantee of the borrower’s owners and additional collateral if necessary. The loan agreement is implemented under the EBRD’s risk-sharing program, so the project to be financed must also meet its criteria.
OTP Bank offers loans with such unique cost compensation to its clients with no more than 249 employees and annual revenues not exceeding the equivalent of EUR 50 million or the currency of the annual balance sheet not exceeding the equivalent of EUR 43 million in UAH equivalent.
The borrower company must have been operating in the Ukrainian market for at least 3 years and meet other requirements set by OTP Bank and the EBRD, including a positive credit history.
