ČKD Blansko Engineering, a.s shortly after its establishing in 1996 got a chance to participate, as a member of consortium together with German companies VOITH HYDRO and VA TECH HYDRO, in realisation of one of the biggest projects of hydroenergetics – pumped-storage power plant Goldisthal in Germany with maximum capacity of 4 x 275 MW. Nevertheless the basic condition was, for the investor of this project and for partners in the consortium, that we submit sufficient guarantees covering risks for a case that we are not able to fulfil completely our contractual obligations. In spite of the fact that at the time the economic strength nor the shareholding ownership structure of our company was hardly adequate to financial volume of deliveries of ČKD Blansko Engineering, a.s., thanks to the Czech Export Bank, a.s. namely the team of its officers presided by Mrs. Hrnčířová, Deputy General Director, we succeeded to solve these problems, this upon application of totally new instruments which were quite non-standard at that time. The project of Goldisthal, which became a substantial contract for us in 2003-2004 was put into operation successfully, and on 15th January 2008 the validity of the last bank guarantees lapsed, without necessity to call any of these. The successful co-operation of our company with the CEB, in the meantime, continued on other projects in India, Australia, Vietnam, DRCongo and other countries. I would like to use this opportunity and to thank cordially to the Czech Export Bank and their employees for the cooperation and support shown up to now, thanks to which our company succeeded to obtain not only important export contracts but also the strategic partner and shareholder – the Slovenian CIMOS Group, which at the same time is an owner of LITOSTROJ E.I., the company producing equipment for water power stations.

During realization of its business cases on international markets, Česká exportní banka is an essential partner for the company PSG-International a.s. Co-operation with ČEB enabled PSG-International a.s. to penetrate the area of supply of investment complexes within power engineering industry and participate at realization of major projects in Russian Federation. PSG-International a.s. highly appreciates professional and individualized approach of ČEB employees. That is why we would like to express our thanks to ČEB for the willingness, support and operational solutions during negotiations. We hope that our co-operation will continue to develop successfully.

PBS DIZ

In recent years První brněnská strojírna Brno DIZ, a.s. has worked with Czech Export Bank mainly for the financing of a delivery project for the completion of the 3rd and 4th blocks of the Iranshahr power station (Iran). Although from the start this has been a significantly problematic project in view of its past reaching back to 1989 with a break in the second half of the 1990s, through close cooperation CEB and EGAP have successfully implemented the project. Under the term “successful implementation” we include the drawing and repayment of a pre-export credit in the implementation phase completed with the provisional acceptance of the work and the issue of a guarantee for the return of the retention lien with the subsequent collection of the retention lien during the guarantee operation phase. We can thus overall assess our cooperation with CEB as very beneficial.

AERO Vodochody a.s.

AERO Vodochody a.s. greatly appreciates its business cooperation with Czech Export Bank, which covers a range of areas and which is contributing to a strengthening of the export opportunities not only for our company but for the Czech Republic as a whole.

ALTA

Czech Export Bank has been a financial partner for ALTA, a.s. on the difficult markets in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus since its establishment, i.e. a whole 10 years. Thanks to Czech Export Bank our company’s exports to these territories are continuously increasing, and alongside trade we are able to offer our partners sophisticated financial services including the financing of large investment plant and components. It is a good thing that there is a fully-fledged Czech equivalent to similar financial institutions from other OECD states and ALTA, a.s. in the role of exporter is, in this sense of the word, fully competitive.

České loděnice, akciová společnost

1. České loděnice considers it an honour that Czech Export Bank is financing the export of České loděnice ships through documentary credits issued by leading European banks.

2. České loděnice sees in this efforts by the state to support Czech manufacturers with the intention of maintaining and expanding current markets in western Europe.

3. The approach of Czech Export Bank with its extensive experience and competent supervision system has brought České loděnice not only financial resources but in particular a significant improvement in the monitoring, planning and implementation system for the production of ships. The qualified consultation activities of the bank’s specialists for unfamiliar markets for České loděnice such as Chile and, in particular, China, remain an important part of this service.

4. The project for cooperation with China depended on the advice and proposals based on Czech Export Bank’s extensive experience in this territory. For České loděnice and the north Bohemian region suffering from high unemployment the project means the securing of hundreds of new jobs and the processing of more materials from the Czech Republic.

ČKD NOVÉ ENERGO, a.s.

Cooperation with CEB has enabled our company, which is significantly pro-export oriented, to finance important projects that have significantly contributed to the fulfilment of our business plans with ambitions for dynamic double-figure growth in sales. Apart from the financing of already completed commissions, CEB is helping us to a great extent through the provision of its know-how and active participation in pre-contract negotiations with important foreign customers to obtain further important export projects.

ENERGO-PRO a.s.

Since its establishment in 1995, ENERGO-PRO a.s. has been one of the most important producers of electricity from renewable resources operating on the Czech energy market. To produce its electricity the company has exclusively used its own small hydro power plants located all over the Czech Republic.
At the end of the 1990s our company determined to expand its business activities beyond the borders of the Czech Republic when it decided to take advantage of a unique business opportunity - the result of the planned liberalisation of energy supplies in Bulgaria - and entered the Bulgarian market through a 100% subsidiary established in Bulgaria as a producer on the Bulgarian market with electricity generated from renewable resources in small hydro power plants.
In order to finance its foreign activities our company began closely cooperating with Czech Export Bank, which at the decisive time demonstrated sufficient belief in our company's business plans and provided it, on the basis of the credit contract, with the funds essential for the actual realisation of its entire Bulgarian project. Last but not least it is important to mention that this exemplary cooperation between our company and Czech Export Bank has continued to the present day, with the bank participating in the financing of further expansion by ENERGO-PRO a.s. abroad.
Through these activities Czech Export Bank is to a significant extent responsible for the fact that our company is today one of the most important and most respected foreign investors in Bulgaria, something that is contributing to building a good name for Czech investors and therefore the Czech Republic as a whole abroad.
To conclude we must also point out that corporation with Czech Export Bank has been problem-free not only as a whole but also at individual management levels, and that the employees of Czech Export Bank have always provided us with a fast and error-free approach to the resolution of any of the problems that have arisen during the long and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two companies.

PAMCO INT, a.s.

We are very pleased to be able to say that we consider the cooperation between our company PAMCO INT, a.s. and Czech Export Bank, which began in 2002, to be very professional, efficient and correct. Thanks to the contributions by Czech Export Bank, PAMCO INT, a.s. completed the complicated business case of the export of 17 L-39 training aircraft to Algeria between 2002 and 2004. This business case was extremely important for our company and its completion required the use of a series of banking instruments such as the provision of a bank guarantee for the correct performance of the contract, pre-export and export financing, payments via documentary credits and so on. Our company was always able to fully rely on the professionalism and helpfulness of the responsible employees at Czech Export Bank.

SOMA spol. s r.o.

SOMA spol. s r.o. is a purely Czech company established in 1992, which focuses on its own development and production of machines for printing packaging materials using the ‘flexotisk' method and their further processing. Our company has entered both domestic and foreign markets with its own products, where so far it has successfully carved out a place for a whole series of its products in the highly competitive international environment.
When launching its own new products on a foreign market in 1997, the support provided by Czech Export Bank for exports to the Russian market was irreplaceable, with its provision of a supplier credit for this pilot project for deliveries of a Somaflex Central 120 N 3543 flexotisk machine. The success of this transaction opened our route to further activities on this attractive market. This project marked the commencement of support for our export activities and our mutual cooperation, which continues today and has been a very significant factor in our continuing expansion on the Russian market, for our penetration of Central European markets and, we anticipate, also of Western European markets.
Since the start of this cooperation, our company has been provided with export support in 17 cases, while 11 of these cases have already been completed with the proper repayment of the support provided. In total export credits worth USD 4.5 million and EUR 2 million have been provided to support the export of domestically produced machines worth in excess of CZK 300 million.
Looking back, the support provided to our company was decisive, in particular in the early days of our cooperation when the prototypes of our newly developed machines were launched onto the market. However, the importance of the support provided in the competitive battle for customers remains very high as it enables us to counterbalance the advantages of suppliers of similar machines from western countries with significant capital resources who are often linked to commercial banks in their own countries. As the machines on offer often have very similar specifications, the payment conditions offered are becoming more and more important in contractual negotiations. Thanks to the support from CEB, our payment conditions are now competitive.
So far, support has been provided exclusively in the form of supplier credits, but in the future we would like to supplement this with buyer credits, which would allow us to increase our exports.
As regards our cooperation with CEB we appreciate in particular the helpful approach towards the realisation of our proposed projects and the willingness to support a medium-sized enterprise in spite of the increased level of risk at the commencement of cooperation. However, we most appreciate the fact that when CEB makes decisions about the provision of support for exports of Czech products, unlike commercial banks operating in the Czech Republic owned by foreign capital, CEB only takes into account the client and the economic parameters of the business case in question.
We believe that our successful cooperation to date will continue and develop in line with the tempo of the expected growth in the exports of our products.