Bank of Georgia secures $10m loan with EFSE

Bank of Georgia subsidiary JSC Bank of Georgia has entered into a $10m subordinated loan agreement with the European Fund for Southeast Europe.

The FTSE 250-listed bank expects the loan to further improve the overall capitalisation of the bank under the Basel III regulations and support further lending growth while maintaining strong capital ratios.

Chief executive Archil Gachechiladze said: "This subordinated loan facility is our latest transaction, in 2019, dedicated to capital optimisation, following the issuance of $100m additional Tier 1 capital notes, and the repayment of a $65m subordinated loan, earlier this year, to optimise our cost of funding.

"With an ever stronger and diversified capital structure, we are well-positioned to continue growing our customer lending in 2019 and beyond."

As of 0820 BST, Bank of Georgia shares had dipped 0.40% to 1,498p.