The European Investment Bank, the lending arm of the European Union, may lend Slovenia’s Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (KBMR) d.d. 100 million euros ($131 million) to support companies and help spur the economy. The loan “would promote medium and long-term lending for capital investment contributing to strengthening the productivity and competitiveness of small and medium-sized companies,� the Luxembourg-based bank said on its website. EIB spokesman Dusan Ondrejicka declined to say when the credit line would be approved as “the bank never comments until the loan agreement is signed,� he said in a phone interview today. Nova Kreditna and its larger rival, Nova Ljubljanska Banka d.d., need to boost their capital and clean their balance sheets after the financial system in Slovenia was “strongly� affected by the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said April 16. Nova Kreditna, Slovenia’s second-biggest bank by assets, said its 2011 loss was much larger than previously reported and amounted to 81 million euros, it said April 17. NLB must raise 400 million euros of equity capital by the end of June to improve its core Tier 1 ratio to above 9 percent as demanded by the country’s central bank and the European Banking Authority. To contact the reporter on this story: Boris Cerni in Ljubljana at bcerni@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net

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