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| Description of company and purpose of project |
| The project is to provide a senior loan of up to $3 million to TBC Leasing or the company, a leasing company established and fully owned by JSC TBC Bank (the Bank), one of Georgia’s leading commercial banks and an IFC client since 1998. Proceeds of the IFC loan would be used to expand the company’s leasing operations with small and medium sized companies and entrepreneurs in Georgia. This would be the first IFC loan provided to TBC Leasing and to a Georgian company operating in the leasing sector. |
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| Project sponsor and major shareholders of project company |
| The project’s sponsor is TBC Bank, which is the largest bank in Georgia, holding 23% of the country’s banking assets and 30.1% of deposits. Currently TBC Bank focuses on funding SMEs and trade finance projects in addition to doing business with multinational companies, embassies and NGOs. The founding shareholders are two local Georgian businessmen who retain a 47% direct and indirect shareholding in TBC Bank. Other major shareholders include Soros Investment Capital (25%), DEG (10%) and IFC (9%). |
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| Total project cost and proposed IFC investment |
| The proposed IFC Investment is a senior loan of up to $3 million to expand leasing operations to SMEs. |
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| Location of project and description of site |
| TBC Leasing is headquartered in Tbilisi, Georgia |
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| Project Development Impact and IFC's Role |
The expected development impact of this project is high because it achieves the following objectives in a frontier country:
- It provides tangible investment support for a company operating in a new financial sector in Georgia and increases access to finance for local SMEs. Leasing will allow SMEs to expand their business activities more affordable because in a typical lease the only collateral required is the asset being financed by the leasing company.
- It allows a leading leasing company to increase its funding base as well as its funding maturity. The tenor of the IFC Loan would enable TBC Leasing to match the tenor of its leasing contracts with its financing. |
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| Environmental and social issues - Category FI-2 |
This is a Financial Intermediary (FI) Type 2 project according to IFC’s environmental review procedure. TBC Leasing will be required to maintain an environmental management system satisfactory to IFC, including the appointment of one environmental officer trained in an environmental workshop conducted or approved by IFC, and to submit annual environmental reports to IFC.
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| To contact the project company, please write to: |
Thea Lortkipanidze, General Director,
TBC Leasing
thea@tbcleasing.ge |
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