News

MKB Unionbank 9-mo corporate loans up 65% y/y

The local MKB Unionbank, owned by Hungarian peer MKB, said corporate credits rose 65% to 480 mln levs in January-September 2007.

The growth rate was slightly quicker than the sector-wide pace which was around 60% over the review period.

Domestic corporate credits topped 19 bln levs by the end of August, reaching 36.4% of the nation's GDP. In August alone, corporate borrowers took out 1.3 bln levs in loans.

'Bulgarian companies need a loan resource to back up their investment programs. Some of these programs are do-or-die as they would align production operations to the relevant European standards,' said MKB Unionbank chief executive director Maria Ilieva.

In terms of volume, the local banks had extended a total of 85,000 corporate loans by mid-2007.

The size of the average corporate loan has increased over the past year by 35,000 to over 210,000 levs.

Retail and repairs, processing industry and construction are the sectors that have absorbed over 70% of total corporate credits.