Spain: EIB and Unicaja sign EUR 400m agreement to finance SMEs

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a loan to Unicaja Banco amounting to EUR 200m intended to finance projects of SMEs and medium-sized enterprises (up to 3 000 employees) in the industrial and services sectors. Unicaja Banco will match the loan with the same amount, meaning that a total of EUR 400 million will be made available.

EIB Vice-President Román Escolano observed, “Today, we once again demonstrate our commitment to Spanish small and medium-sized businesses, which have a key role to play in economic recovery and job creation.”

The funds may be used to finance new investment projects or working capital requirements up to EUR 25m in the case of SMEs and up to EUR 50m of investment in the case of midcaps. This facility will support projects carried out mainly in Spain and around 50% of the loan amount will got to projects in convergence regions.

In 2014, the EIB Group (including the European Investment Fund) provided EUR 25 500m in support of some 290 000 SMEs and midcaps throughout Europe. In Spain, the EIB made available EUR 7 603m in new credit lines for SMEs, benefiting more than 62 000 firms.