The FINANCIAL — Bank of Georgia, the leading Georgian Bank has closed a $50 million one-year Trade Finance Club Facility (“Club Facility”) arranged by Citi with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, contributing in funding and providing partial guarantee support through its Global Trade Finance Program.
This is the third Club Facility arranged by Citi for Bank of Georgia, which attracted several international investors during the syndication. Proceeds of this year’s Club Facility will support import and export transactions for prime corporate customers of Bank of Georgia, increasing the volume and value of trade transactions in Georgia’s key economic sectors, including agribusiness, transportation and energy. The first ever Trade Finance Club Facility for a Georgian bank was issued to Bank of Georgia in 2014 and was also arranged by Citi, with IFC trade guarantee support.
“As the leading trade finance business provider in the country, Bank of Georgia puts a great importance on consistently providing the best solutions to its clients,” said Kaha Kiknavelidze, CEO, Bank of Georgia. “This new facility will further strengthen the Bank’s position in the trade finance segment and will help us to meet the evolving needs of our corporate client base. We are very pleased to once again cooperate with our established partners and I would like to take the opportunity to thank Citi and IFC for their continuous successful collaboration.”
“Citi is firmly committed to supporting the flow of trade and commerce financing around the world, as well as helping emerging market economies play a more significant role within global trade” comments Anurag Chaudhary, Global Head of Distribution, Treasury and Trade Solutions at Citi. “Citi has a unique ability to bring together a number of players in the market – clients, partner banks and multilateral agencies – to help structure new trade solutions for our clients. With this concept in-mind, we have assisted in providing an ideal solution for Bank of Georgia via the “club” structure to help raise incremental amounts of trade financing.”
Marcos Brujis, IFC Global Director, Financial Institutions, said, “Support for international trade is key to the continued economic development of Georgia, an important regional crossroads. The Citi and IFC facility will accelerate the flow of trade credit to Georgia’s leading trade finance intermediary, Bank of Georgia, helping service the import of critical commodities and generating much-needed foreign exchange through export activity. IFC is proud of our long-term cooperation with Bank of Georgia across many lines of business and for this recent transaction through IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program.”
Bank of Georgia joined IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program in 2008, the first Georgian bank to enroll in the GTFP. The award-winning program now brings together more than 500 banks in 150 countries, and last year supported more than $6 billion in trade worldwide. IFC has supported more than $300 million in trade in Georgia through GTFP and its other trade and commodity-finance programs.
About Bank of Georgia
Bank of Georgia is the leading Georgian bank, based on total assets (33.5% market share), total loans (32.1% market share) and client deposits (31.8% market share) as of 30 June 2016. The Bank offers a broad range of retail banking, corporate banking, investment management and P&C insurance services. As of 30 June 2016, the Bank served approximately 2.0 million client accounts through one of the largest distribution networks in Georgia, with 273 branches, the country’s largest ATM network, comprising 763 ATMs, 2,681 self-service terminals and a full-service remote banking platform and a modern call center.
About Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.
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