"We've been collaborating with this solid financial institution since 1999. We are grateful that despite various financial threats in Europe and stagnancy in the inter-banking lending market, Šiaulių Bankas has been granted a loan," Donatas Savickas, the bank's deputy CEO and the head of its Finance and Risk Management Division, said in a press release on Monday.
Commerzbank, together with other European and Asian banks, participated in syndicated loans arranged by the EBRD for Šiaulių Bankas in 2005 and 2006. This is the first time that the German bank is lending directly to the Lithuanian bank.
Seventeen shareholders, acting in concert, held a combined stake of 43.17 percent in Šiaulių Bankas in late June, including the EBRD with 19.57 percent and Gintaras Kateiva with 6.24 percent.
Šiaulių Bankas is quoted on the blue-chip Main List of the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius stock exchange.