RIGA - Parex Bank announced on June 29 that it has secured a two-year, 500 million euro loan from a syndicate of international financial institutions, the largest such loan ever extended to a Baltic bank.
Thirty-six financial institutions from 16 countries signed onto the record-breaking loan, which was priced at 0.45 percent over EURIBOR. Some 84 percent of funds came from European and North American investors, while 16 percent was provided by Asian investors, the bank said in a statement.
"We are proud to be the first Latvian private bank to enter this market and delighted to once again set the market benchmark with this record-breaking amount of 500 million euros as the largest debt capital markets transaction for any Baltic borrower," said Parex's chief of investment banking, Gene Zolotarev, who is also chairman of Baltic News, publisher of The Baltic Times.
As expected, the bulk of the loan 's 310 million euros 's will go toward canceling a previous loan that matures this month. The remainder will be used "for general business purposes," the bank said in a statement.
With 3.6 billion euros in assets, Parex Bank is the third largest bank in Latvia, behind Hansabanka and SEB Unibanka, which procure much of their finance from their parent companies in Scandinavia.
Parex is majority owned by president and chairman Valery Kargin and Viktor Krasovitsky, respectively. The bank has representative offices in 15 countries.
