EBRD financing to Banca Intesa Beograd under warehouse receipts framework

The EBRD is extending the availability of agricultural commodity financing in Serbia, with a €10 million loan to Banca Intesa Beograd aiming to improve the access to funding for agribusinesses and promote the use of warehouse receipts. Agriculture is one of the key sectors of the Serbian economy, accounting for up to 15.5 per cent of the country’s GDP. Serbia is also the largest grain producer in the south-eastern Europe region. The facility extended to Banca Intesa is part of the EBRD’s €70 million risk sharing framework launched in July 2010 to finance the seasonal working capital needs of Serbian agricultural companies through participating partner banks. The facility will support Banca Intesa in extending financing to local agribusinesses using warehouse receipts as collateral, demonstrating the viability of lending against agricultural commodities.

“The EBRD is strongly committed to supporting the development of agricultural commodity financing and we are pleased to assist with further implementation of the warehouse receipts programme in Serbia, for the benefit of local companies in the agricultural sector”, said Peter Bryde, EBRD Deputy Director for Agribusiness. “Taking into account increased interest for agricultural loans among the companies, and the fact that the essence for successful recovery is agricultural sector, Banca Intesa gladly takes part in all projects aimed to fostering development of this sector. We anticipate that the cooperation with the EBRD will simplify the process of issuing loans to our clients and will contribute to increasing business activities in this field”, said Darko Popović, Member of the Executive Board and Head of the Corporate Banking Division of Banca Intesa Beograd.

The implementation of warehouse receipt system in Serbia is supported by considerable technical assistance grants provided by the EBRD’s Shareholder Special Fund, UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation and USAID for training of key government stakeholders, participating banks and warehouses staff as well as for introduction of an electronic register for warehouse receipts. Since the beginning of its activity in Serbia, the EBRD has committed €2.3 billion in various sectors of the country’s economy. In the agribusiness sector alone, the EBRD has directly committed more than €6 billion in over 400 projects across central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States since 1991.

News source: EBRD link: article