HSBC Starts Next Part of $200 Million U.A.E. Companies’ Fund - Bloomberg

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Europe’s biggest bank by market value, started the second part of a $200 million fund to help local Emirati companies in the United Arab Emirates boost trade.

Worth $100 million, it follows the creation of a fund in January last year, Nick Levitt, head of HSBC’s U.A.E. commercial bank, said in an interview today. About 42 percent of the money from the first fund was for companies in Dubai, according to the bank. About 24 percent of the companies used the money to supplement working capital, while 10 percent used it to apply for term loans.

“It was an extremely strong message we sent to the segment to say ‘we’re here, we’re lending’ when a lot of banks weren’t,” Levitt said in Abu Dhabi. “All arrows since then pointed to the direction of ‘why don’t we do more of this?’”