Bulgaria's fifth-largest lender, the First Investment Bank (FIBank), has procured a 185 million euro syndicated loan which matures in one year's time, Dnevnik business daily reported, quoting a bank statement on October 26.

Organiser of the deal is First Investment Finance BV.

The syndicate of banks comprises 23 top lenders from 10 countries, where ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Bayerische Landesbank are prime lenders.
The Bulgarian bank will use the loan facility for trade financing and for refinancing of an existing syndicated loan.

FIBank is a universal bank with a 124 sales point network and offices in Bulgaria and Cyprus. The bank staged an IPO in June this year and has a registered capital of 56.2 million euros and paid-in capital of 150.6 million euros.

As of September 30 this year, the bank's balance sheet total stood at 1894.7 million euros, a 17.5 per cent increase on the year. Its non-consolidated net profit during the same period rose by 274.67 per cent on the year to 17.6 million euros.

The bank is the fifth largest in terms of assets and loans with market shares of, respectively, 7.35 per cent and 7.78 per cent.