Today in Barcelona, representatives of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Institut Català de Finances (ICF) and ICF Equipaments signed three loan operations worth a total of EUR 227 million.
EUR 62 million will go towards financing the last phase of the construction of Barcelona’s new trade fair centre. The final beneficiary of this loan will be FIRA 2000, the company set up in 1993 to develop the project. One of the positive aspects that persuaded the EIB to finance the project was the role played by trade fairs in fostering innovation by helping to bring the fruits of R&D investment in the different sectors to the market.
A second loan of EUR 115 million will serve to finance investment by ICF Equipaments, ICF’s subsidiary responsible for the building and maintenance of schools and healthcare centres, consisting of small-scale projects spread throughout Catalonia, including the construction or enlargement of 54 pre-school, primary and secondary education and vocational training establishments and 13 primary healthcare centres.
The third operation consists of a EUR 50 million credit line for helping to finance the projects of SMEs, mainly in the industrial, tourism and service sectors in Catalonia and other regions – and local authorities.
These loans have 25-year term, with, for the FIRA loan, the possibility of bullet repayment before the 24th year.
These operations present a clear example of the EIB and ICF working together to inject liquidity into the market at a particularly difficult time.
The EIB is the European Union’s long-term financing institution promoting EU objectives. Created in 1958, it operates in the 27 EU Member States and over 130 other countries throughout the world. Projects fostering education and innovation under the Lisbon Strategy are EU and therefore EIB investment priorities.
At a time of widespread difficulty accessing credit, the financing of small businesses is particularly important. Following an extensive consultation exercise carried out by the EIB in the EU countries in 2007, the Bank overhauled the range of its products targeting Europe’s 23 million SMEs, which provide jobs for over 100 million people. Alongside the new products that will be developed over the next few months, the EIB is introducing greater flexibility and simplified procedures, asking in return for increased transparency on the part of the intermediary banks, which will be required to clearly inform their customers of the positive impact of the EIB funds on their lending terms as regards maturity, flexibility of disbursement and interest rates.
- A number of European Councils, starting with the one in Lisbon in 2000, have emphasised the key role placed by education and innovation in closing the gap between the EU and other more advanced economies.
- The conclusions of this consultation exercise can be viewed at: http://www.eib.org/projects/publications/sme-consultation-2007-2008.htm