Brussels, 26/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Providing finance tailored to the specific needs of innovative SMEs in France is the objective of the finance contract signed on Wednesday 25 September between Bpifrance and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group.
This major operation will draw on the combined financing capacity of the EIB Group (the EIB and its subsidiary the EIF) and Bpifrance. It is innovative in terms of the choice of financing instruments used. The EIB Group has made available to a Bpifrance a €750 million credit line and a €200 million guarantee envelope under the EIF's guarantee facility. The EIF's contribution, which deploys the Risk Sharing Instrument (RSI) supported by the European Commission, will specifically provide Bpifrance with a 40% guarantee on its loans to innovative firms. The EIB states in a press release that using the RSI will substantially enhance the leverage of the EIB loan, while encouraging the assumption of risk on innovative SMEs. This unprecedented mobilisation of resources will be the EIB Group's biggest operation in France in 2013.
This financing operation will target SMEs with fewer than 250 employees and mid-caps with fewer than 3,000 employees. It comes in the crucial period for the firms concerned between the end of R&D and the commercial exploitation phase, when finance is scarce.
This joint commitment of the EIB Group and Bpifrance is being mounted in the framework of the European Growth and Jobs Pact adopted on 28 and 29 June 2012 by the EU's heads of state or government, for which the EIB Group will be mobilising over €7 billion in France in 2013 alone. (OL/transl.fl)