MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EFSE Lends $24m to BT Leasing for Micro-, Small Enterprises (MSEs) in Romania

The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a Luxembourg-domiciled microfinance investment vehicle, recently lent EUR 20 million (USD 24 million) to BT Leasing, a member of Romania’s Grupul Financiar Banca Transilvania (BT). BT Leasing CEO Ionut Morar explained, “We are glad to receive this funding that allows us to support Romanian entrepreneurs, especially micro and small enterprises, because financial leasing is the easiest form of investment financing for such companies.”

As of March, Grupul BT reports total assets of RON 60 billion (USD 15 billion).

German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) founded EFSE in 2005. As of 2018, the fund has EUR 896 million (USD 1.1 billion) outstanding to retail lenders, which have on-lent those funds to 138,000 end-borrowers in the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. As of 2018, EFSE holds a microfinance label from the Luxembourg Fund Labeling Agency (LuxFLAG), an NGO that certifies that social investment vehicles actually invest as advertised.

Sources and Additional Resources

EFSE press release
https://www.efse.lu/news-events/news/detail/efse-and-bt-leasing-transilvania-join-forces-to-foster-financing-to-mses-in-romania/

BT financials
https://www.bancatransilvania.ro/en/investor-relations/financial-results/

EFSE financials
https://www.efse.lu/about-the-fund/facts-and-figures/

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