The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is keen to partner with Indian companies in their overseas projects, its Managing Director Riccardo Puliti has said.
The bank is open to not only making financial investments’ in Indian ventures in its countries of operations, but also sharing knowledge about local economies with prospective Indian investors on an informal basis.
“Our visit here is a message to say that we are ready to accompany you and be accompanied by you to markets where we can work together very well with a combination of technology, cost and other competitive advantages”, Puliti said at an interactive session organised by industry body Assocham here on Monday.
He said EBRD — which does not have Indian operations — was keen to engage more with Indian companies with all kinds of financial instruments as long as they were willing to invest in the institution’s countries of operations. Currently, EBRD is owned by 65 countries and two inter-governmental institutions. India is not a member of EBRD.
As many as 10 Indian companies have already associated themselves with EBRD and availed its assistance to set up operations.
“India is an important source of foreign direct investment in EBRD’s countries of operations as the value of the joint India-EBRD investments stood at about 800 million euros as of June 2014. EBRD accounted for 630 million in these joint investments and the rest was from Indian companies in the private sector”, Puliti said. It is currently focused on four sectors—financial institutions, infrastructure-transportation, energy, and manufacturing and services.
On whether EBRD would be willing to finance Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Nandita Parshad, Director, EBRD, said the institution had special product lines for sector. “We finance all sizes of projects and companies as we operate in countries of all sizes”, she added.
Earlier in his address, Assocham President elect Sunil Kanoria said there was need to convince the Indian Government to become a member country of the EBRD. “Eastern European countries are a potential investment destination for Indian industry”, he added.