Private energy, the only creditworthy sector

Privately held companies in the energy sector are among the few to have been able to secure funding worth hundreds of millions of euros from banks in the last few months, whilst most economic sectors are complaining about a lending freeze. Petrom has taken out around 1.1 billion euros from the EBRD, the EIB and from commercial banks over the last few months, CEZ is discussing taking out funding of up to half a billion euros with the EIB, while the Italians at UniCredit are saying green energy is the only sector they are willing to provide funding for at this time. UniCredit, one of the leading creditors in Central and Eastern Europe, is confident that Romania's economy will rebound in 2010, when it expects a 1% rise, after the first quarter of the year saw the GDP decline by 6.4%. "This is the only sector not posing major risks, and which we are willing to finance. We are in talks with several wind farm developers, but we have yet to sign any agreement," said Melih Mengu, vice-president for corporate banking of UniCredit Tiriac Bank.