Brussels, 24/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 24 September, the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group established a partnership with Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. (Halkbank) and provided a €100 million facility to support innovative and research-oriented small and medium-sized companies and mid-caps in Turkey, with the financial support of the European Union.
The two members of the EIB Group - the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund (EIF) - engineered this operation using a guarantee facility co-developed with the European Commission.
This innovative partnership is being used for the first time in Turkey. The operation is structured as an EIB loan to Halkbank. It is enhanced by an EIF guarantee providing credit-risk coverage to Halkbank under the Risk-Sharing Instrument (RSI), a guarantee facility co-developed with the European Commission and backed by the financial support of the EU.
In a press release, the EIB explained that this joint effort would improve the lending conditions offered by Halkbank to the innovative companies. Halkbank will pass on the advantages by lowering both the collateral requirements and the interest rate applied to loans to SMEs and small mid-caps under this facility.
In addition to longer tenors and attractive pricing, the EIB Group facility will give innovative companies access to finance, which is provided more reluctantly by the financial sector to such companies due to the relatively high levels of uncertainty and risk inherent to innovation.
The EIB said that focusing on research-based and innovative enterprises would help to support private sector efforts to strengthen innovation capacity.
Depending on the size of the sub-loans of Halkbank, some 180 to 200 innovative companies are expected to benefit from the EIB Group facility. This joint EU effort is supported by the Seventh Framework Programme, to which Turkey is associated, and will increase access to finance for innovative SMEs and small mid-caps. (OL/transl.fl)