BRICS Bank to up SA lending

THE New Development Bank (NDB), also known as the BRICS Bank, sees various opportunities in South Africa and will scale up its projects over time, according to its president, KV Kamath.
On the first day of the bank’s annual meeting in Cape Town ― the first time the meeting has been hosted in SA ― Kamath said the bank had already given South Africa assistance of about $1,5 billion.
There is a “fair pipeline” for the rest of the year, expected to total about $2,3 billion for the country. “We believe in what we can do for SA,” he said.
Kamath said the bank is fully operational in all its member countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It only gives loans to member countries.
The next BRICS summit will take place in Brazil towards the end of the year, where announcements regarding the possible expansion of members of the NDB could be made. Currently, only BRICS member countries are shareholders of the NDB.
The bank, established in 2014, has $5 billion capital derived from its members. It has so far approved 30 loans, 17 of them were last year, to a value of $4,6 billion.
Earlier in the day, governors of the bank had also suggested it was time for BRICS to expand its membership.
In response to a question, Kamath said the bank plans to issue bonds in local currencies in South Africa, Russia and India in 2019. This is separate from bonds that have already been issued in the local currency in China.
Kamath also said issuing loans in rand is “imminent” and that the bank is looking to listing a rand bond on the JSE this year.
“We are a bank set up by developing countries. We are here to listen and learn and do what is required by our members,” he said, adding that the bank’s focus is on sustainable infrastructure initiatives.
So far, the NDB has given two loans to Eskom totalling about $600 million. Kamath emphasised this was not funding for coal-fired power stations. – Fin24