São Paulo, Brazil, June 30, 2008
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today announced that it has successfully closed a syndication deal that will help Banco BBM, a leading midsize bank in Brazil, expand its activities targeting midsize companies, a key segment of the economy.
Banco Real and Standard Chartered Bank led the $150 million syndication along with IFC. Ten international banks from eight countries will also participate in the three-year funding.
João Carlos Pinho, Funding and Institutional Relationship Director of Banco BBM, said, “Through this syndication, IFC is playing a catalytic role in making longer-tenor credit available to Brazil’s midsize corporate borrowers to help improve their operations. We are extremely pleased that this transaction demonstrates the resilience of leading midsize Brazilian banks like ours.”
Andrew Gunther, IFC General Manager in Brazil, said, “Despite uncertainty in global financial markets, this transaction demonstrates that well-run Brazilian banks can still access competitively priced funding to support their growing credit operations. We are pleased that several international banks have joined IFC in this financing.”
IFC’s first local currency loan in Brazil was with Banco BBM in June 2006. Since then, IFC has provided about $650 million equivalent of local currency financing to nine local, mostly midsize banks. This funding was complemented by about $550 million in syndicated medium-term credit that IFC helped mobilize from international banks.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, fosters sustainable economic growth in developing countries by financing private sector investment, mobilizing private capital in local and international financial markets, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. IFC’s vision is that poor people should have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives. In FY07, IFC committed $8.2 billion and mobilized an additional $3.9 billion through syndications and structured finance for 299 investments in 69 developing countries. IFC also provided advisory services in 97 countries. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
About Banco BBM S.A.
Banco BBM is a leading midsize Brazilian bank, with a strong business franchise in credit origination and structuring, asset management, and risk management products. It is oldest private sector bank in Brazil and regarded as one of the country’s best-run financial entities. It was also the country’s sixth-largest domestic privately owned bank in terms of total assets at the end of 2007. The bank’s assets reached the equivalent of $8.4 billion, and its net worth was $579 million at the end of March 2008. Its main shareholder is the Mariani Group.
