EBRD in 2006: profits rise and investment in Russia expands
12 March 2007
The EBRD has expanded its activities markedly in 2006 and has increased investment in Russia, particularly outside major cities.
According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)’s press release, profits in 2006 rose to €2.4 billion ($3.16 billion) from €1.5 billion last year. The increase is attributed to returns on the bank’s previous equity investments.
The EBRD has invested a total of €33.3 billion in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union since its inception in 1991 and continues to expand. Russia has benefited particularly from this expansion: it received nearly 40 percent of the €4.9 billion in investments in 2006. Total investments in Russia jumped from €1.1 billion in 2005 to €1.9 billion last year, and this expansion marks still more activity in Russia. EBRD staff has doubled in Moscow, and three new offices in the South, the Volga region, and Siberia are to open this year. Three quarters of new investments were made outside the urban centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the setting of this year’s Annual Meeting in Kazan in May is perhaps symbolic of this trend.
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