Juncker Plan: £820 mln for SMEs as EIF & ProCredit Double Support for Companies
The European Investment Fund (EIF) and ProCredit Group are providing an additional EUR 450 million to innovative small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), bringing a total of EUR 820 million to companies in eleven countries.
The EIF-backed financing is now available through ProCredit banks from Germany to Georgia, with target companies using new technologies and producing new products in one of the eleven countries where the facility is available (Germany, Albania, Serbia, FYROM, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia). To date, agreements with ProCredit have already supported more than 1,000 innovative SMEs and many more will be financed in the coming years.
These agreements were signed under the European Commission’s InnovFin initiative, backed by the EU’s research and innovation program Horizon 2020. The InnovFin initiative enables participating banks to provide loans to innovative companies with the support of a guarantee provided by the EIF. The agreements signed in EU member state countries were made possible by the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The EFSI is the central pillar of the European Commission's Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the “Juncker Plan”. The “Juncker Plan" focuses on boosting investments to create jobs and growth by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects.
“We are delighted that InnovFin SME guarantee agreements with the ProCredit banks are yielding such positive results,” said EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert. “ProCredit’s well-established distribution network, combined with its SME lending expertise, ensures that EC-backed loans can be rapidly deployed across the eleven territories. These transactions will help companies to access this EU backed finance in order to drive forward an innovation agenda across Europe.”
"The Commission recognizes that small businesses help drive jobs and growth in Europe,” said European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competition. “Facilitating access to the finance they need to innovate, expand and create jobs is one of the most effective ways by which the EU supports small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe. I wish those set to benefit from this financing every success as they take their next steps."
“The InnovFin initiative has definitely helped to modernize the SME sector in our countries of operation,” said Borislav Kostadinov, Member of the Management Board of ProCredit General Partner AG (sole liable managing entity of ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA). “Thanks to our Hausbank relationship with a large number of innovative SMEs, ProCredit banks have been in a position to finance initiatives across a wide range of industries, especially in the manufacturing sector. Hence we are pleased that EIF and the ProCredit group have agreed to expand this successful program.”
The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. More information on EIF's work under EFSI is available here.
ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA, based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is the parent company of the international ProCredit group, which consists of banks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and whose operational focus is on South Eastern and Eastern Europe. In addition to this regional focus, the ProCredit group is also present in South America and Germany. The company’s shares are traded on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.