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Moscow, April 6, 2004
—The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, signed an agreement today to provide a $4 million loan to DeltaLease-Far East for equipment leasing to its customers in the Russian Far East and Siberia. DeltaLease-Far East is one of the leading providers of equipment leasing services for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Russian Far East where leasing and other financial services are under-represented.
Apart from providing much needed long-term financing to small and medium-sized enterprises, IFC’s investment will increase the availability and competitiveness of long-term finance in this vast region of Russia. DeltaLease-Far East is IFC’s first investment in a financial institution specializing in Siberia and the Russian Far East.
Edward Nassim, IFC’s Director for Central and Eastern Europe, noted: “IFC’s financing of DeltaLease-Far East builds on IFC’s extensive support to development of leasing in Russia, including our work on legal and regulatory reform. By providing long-term finance to a leasing company working in the Russian Far East and Siberia, IFC will help spread availability of lease finance throughout the country.”
Larissa Sidyuk, General Director of DeltaLease-Far East, pointed out the importance of having IFC as a financial partner: “The availability of long-term finance from IFC allows DeltaLease-Far East to provide competitive lease finance for terms up to 60 months. Our partnership with IFC allows us to complement our flexible and professional approach with IFC's extensive experience in leasing in Russia. This allows us to deliver even more tangible value to our clients in Siberia and the Far East.”
Background Information
DeltaLease-Far East
. Delta Lease- Far East (
www.dlfe.ru
) is a leading independent leasing company providing leasing services to small and medium-sized enterprises throughout the Russian Far East and Siberia. Since its inception in 1999, the company has financed a broad range of SMEs in construction, transport, consumer goods manufacturing, trade and services, port services, wood processing, forestry, printing, food processing, and other industries.
Delta Lease- Far East is based in Vladivostok, and currently has offices in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Sakhalin), Khabarovsk, and Novosibirsk. The company also conducts business in Kemerovo, Tomsk, Biisk, Barnaul, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.
DeltaLease-Far East is an investee company of The U.S. Russia Investment Fund. For communications in English, please contact Gregory Sundstrom (
gregorys@online.ru
), Chairman of the Board of DeltaLease-Far East and Vice President of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund.
International Finance Corporation
. Russia joined IFC in 1993. Since then IFC has approved investments worth $2.3 billion to finance nearly 90 projects across a variety of sectors. IFC significantly increased its investment program in Russia in the last fiscal year (July 2002 – June 2003), approving nearly $700 million of investments. IFC's increased activity reflects the improving investment climate in Russia, greater opportunities in an increasingly broad range of sectors, and stronger foreign investor interest.
IFC has been involved in the Russian leasing sector since 1997 by implementing a long-term technical assistance program on leasing development in Russia. IFC, with funding from Canada and the UK, advised the government on amending leasing legislation, carried out an extensive professional training program for the market players, and conducted a broad public education campaign. As a result IFC saw the market grow form virtually negligible volume in 1997 to $2.3 billion by the end of 2003. IFC has also invested $34.1 millions of its own funds to support five leasing companies in Russia.
The mission of IFC (
www.ifc.org
) is to promote sustainable private sector investment in developing countries, helping to reduce poverty and improve people's lives. IFC finances private sector investments in the developing world, mobilizes capital in the international financial markets, helps clients improve social and environmental sustainability, and provides technical assistance and advice to governments and businesses. From its founding in 1956 through FY03, IFC has committed more than $37 billion of its own funds and arranged $22 billion in syndications for 2,990 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC's worldwide committed portfolio as of FY03 was $16.7 billion for its own account and $6.6 billion held for participants in loan syndications.
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