Under the agreement signed between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Cologne on 27 October 2014, the EIB has provided today a total of EUR 30 million to Banco BPI (BPI), Millennium bcp (Millennium) and Montepio Geral (Montepio) for financing the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises.
In October 2014, the EIB and IDB announced the creation of two facilities to finance the international expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Apart from increasing trade, the internationalization of companies and productive integration, the two facilities also aim at boosting employment in the two regions.
Under the facility established by the EIB, the EIB will finance an amount of up to USD 500 million to promote the internationalization of Latin American and Caribbean SMEs via investments carried out by their subsidiaries in Europe, as well as European SMEs and Midcaps (companies with up to 3,000 employees) with trading activity or a presence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The IDB has established an equivalent facility, which will support European SMEs seeking to make investments in Latin American and the Caribbean, as well as Latin American and Caribbean SMEs with trade activities with the EU.
The loans signature of today between the EIB and BPI, Millennium and Montepio represent the first implementation of the initiative and the partial utilization of the agreed overall amount of USD 500 million under the EIB facility. The loans will support Foreign Direct Investment in Portugal and will foster the export activity of SMEs and Mid-Caps, therefore strengthening the Portuguese growth potential and fostering employment creation.