LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has almost unanimous backing from its shareholders to expand its mandate into North Africa, the bank said on Wednesday.
Sixty-two of the bank’s 63 country and institutional shareholders voted for amendments to the bank’s statutes to allow it to invest in the region, while one country had not voted by early October, the bank said in a statement.
The shareholders also agreed changes to allow the EBRD to provide technical cooperation, expected to total around 100 million euros, for Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan “in the coming weeks or months”, ahead of ratification of the mandate change at national level.
The EBRD expects to invest around 2.5 billion euros annually in the region, compared with 8-9 billion euros in emerging Europe.
(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Sebastian Tong)
