Slovenia awards banks 132 mln euros of loan guarantees

LJUBLJANA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Euro zone member Slovenia sold state guarantees worth 132.4 million euros ($199.1 million) at two auctions on Monday to seven local banks as part of a 1.2 billion euro plan to improve liquidity in the country.

The overall target for the two auctions had been set at 100 million euros, the finance ministry said.

One auction, at which the banks offered 55.4 million euros, included only companies with the lower credit grade C "so that companies with lower rating can also get loans," the ministry said.

It said the state would guarantee at most 50 percent of the loans for such companies.

In a separate auction, held for companies with credit grades A, B and C, the state would guarantee at most 35 percent of the related loans. The banks' offer amounted to 77 million euros.

Among banks that received guarantees were Slovenia's largest banks Nova Ljubljanska Banka, Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM.LJ) and Abanka Vipa (ABKN.LJ).

The government had earlier said it would offer guarantees with a total value of 1.2 billion euros for bank loans to companies in order to improve liquidity in the country, severely hit by the global crisis. So far a total of 492.4 million euros of guarantees have been awarded.

Slovenia's economy is expected to contract 7.3 percent this year and slightly recover in 2010 with growth of 0.9 percent. (Reporting by Igor Ilic, editing by Andy Bruce)