The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is extending a $9.528 million loan to BC Mobiasbancă - Groupe Société Générale SA for on-lending to private companies undertaking energy-saving measures and investing in renewable energy products.

The new loan comes under the Moldovan Sustainable Energy Financing Facility II, which provides loans to finance energy efficiency improvements in the private sector.

"We are very happy to top up our engagement in energy efficiency with another loan to Mobiasbancă. We are impressed with the response to the first loan earlier this year and see this as a strong foundation for further successful energy efficiency investments," Octavian Costaș, the acting head of the EBRD office in Chisinau, said.

Moldova, which is one of the most energy-intensive countries in the region, spends more than 30 percent of its import budget on energy.

"I am glad to announce that our first MoSEFF loan signed earlier this year was a great success. We continue to receive further financing requests from Moldovan entrepreneurs, which is why we decided to negotiate an extension of our cooperation with the EBRD," Ridha Tekaia, the president of Mobiasbancă - Groupe Société Générale, said.

The EBRD is the largest institutional investor in Moldova, signing more than 100 investments in the country covering the energy, transport, agribusiness, general industry and banking sectors.