Silk Road Group S.A.

Small and medium-sized traders often do not have access to trade financing and their growth is often constrained by the amount of equity they can put into their business. A consortium comprising the Silk Road Group, BTA Bank and Imedi L International has introduced an innovative service that will help to give a boost to small and medium-sized businesses in Georgia that are involved in importing goods into the country.

The service is tailored around a new banking product called Impocredit to be offered by BTA Bank. In fact, Impocredit represents a bundle of services that include financing, transportation and insurance and will be offered through BTA Bank as a one-stop shop. Within Impocredit, BTA Bank contributes the import financing, Silk Road Group provides the transportation services and the insurance company Imedi L International contributes insurance of imported goods.

As a result of such bundling, importers will benefit from easily accessible credit for their import operations and fully-insured transportation and logistics services, complete with handling of all security and customs documents. The credit line will be offered with a minimal processing period, at a competitive interest rate and with very reasonable guarantee requirements. Since it reduces the complexity of raising trade financing and organizing import logistics, Impocredit will allow importers to focus on marketing and on distributing their products.

“The main goal of Impocredit is to assist small and medium businesses,” says Iva Martiashvili, member of the Board of BTA Bank. "Joining forces with Silk Road Group and Imedi L International allows us to reduce a substantial amount of risk associated with import financing. This will benefit established traders but even more so small and medium-sized businesses that otherwise have very limited access to credit."

“Silk Road Group, with transportation as its core business, has a strong interest to increase the import of goods to Georgia and to help the country to become more than just a transit corridor. The significant collective experience of the partners involved in the project will benefit our customers and allows them to grow,” explains Levan Enukidze, Head of Business Development, at Silk Road Trans, the Georgian subsidiary of the Silk Road Group.

Silk Road Group is one of the leading transportation companies in Georgia, the Caucasus and the Caspian region. BTA Bank is a Georgian bank with a focus on business clients. Imedi L International is one of the leading insurance companies in Georgia with over 15 years experience in the market.