"Currently, the EBRD is considering an investment which would strengthen shipping and trade - an expansion of container handling operations in Klaipėda port by Terminal Investment," the bank said in a press release.
It gave no more information about the possible investment.
Terminal Investment owns Klaipėdos Smeltė, one of the port's biggest stevedoring companies.
Klaipėdos Smeltė CEO Rimantas Juška told BNS that the EBRD would loan 50 percent of the money required for the project and SEB Bankas would provide the remaining 50 percent. However, he did not disclose the exact sum.
"There are two potential partners. The second partner is SEB. We have submitted our documents to them, but are now waiting for a decision. Until we have singed (an agreement), I don't want to talk about the sums," he said.
SEB Bankas' credit committee should take a decision in mid-December, the CEO said.
Klaipėdos Smeltė is currently using its own money to finance works. It has started building a transformer house and power lines, is relocating boiler houses and is drawing up draft specifications for bidding processes to be launched in the future, he said.
Several years ago, Terminal Investment announced plans to establish a regional container distribution center in Klaipėda. Terminal Investment is a partner of Mediterranean Shipping Company, which was said to be planning to divert high-capacity container carriers to the port.
It was said that once the expansion program had been implemented, Klaipėdos Smeltė's container terminal would have an annual throughput capacity of a million TEUs in 2023.
Klaipėdos Smeltė posted a net profit of 15.386 million litas (EUR 4.46m) last year, a rise of 60 percent from 9.369 million litas in 2010. Revenues grew by 22 percent to 76.13 million litas. TEU handling increased by 37.7 percent to 158,500 units.
