The country’s sixth largest bank First Investment Bank (FIB) signed a contract with the German development bank KfW to get five-year EUR 10mn loan to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The credit line was granted after a respective investigation of the financial results of the bank and after approval by the European Commission. The FIB will provide loans to its clients of up to EUR 250,000, which will be granted for the purchase of trade area, machinery and equipment, as well as for renovation of production units. As recalled, FIB received a EUR 65mn syndicated loan from 11 banks last month. The credit was arranged by Germany 's Bayerische Landesbank and Dutch ABN Amro. The maturity of the loan is one year and it will be used to finance the activities of the bank. The shareholders of FIB will vote on Jul 17 on a capital hike of 10% to BGN 110mn (EUR 56.2mn). FIB is planning to expand its market share in terms of assets to 8% this year from 7.1% at end-2007. The net profit of the bank rose by 41.1% y/y to BGN 17.7mn in Jan-Apr. Following a series of rumours among stock traders for bankruptcy risks, Fitch changed the outlook on FIB ratings from positive to stable while Moody’s announced that it had placed the lender on rating watch negative. Liquidity and capital adequacy ratios of the bank are estimated at 24.6% and 13.57% as of end-April.