The European Investment Bank signed today new partnerships with ATEbank and MARFIN EGNATIA Bank worth a total of EUR 180 million in support of small and medium-sized investments in Greece.
The contracts were signed today in Athens by EIB Vice-President Plutarchos Sakellaris, ATEbank’s Governor, Mr Demetrios Miliakos, and the Managing Director of MARFIN POPULAR BANK, Mr Efthimios Bouloutas.
This new EIB partnership creates an alliance with two top Greek banks with extensive branch networks and wide SME portfolios. EUR 100 million goes to ATEbank, with which the EIB had regular cooperation over the period 1979-1986. EUR 80 million is for MARFIN EGNATIA Bank, with which the EIB is joining forces for the first time. The funds will be used to provide finance to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the fields of industry, agroindustry, commercial services and tourism, as well as to small infrastructure projects undertaken by public and/or private promoters in Greece. The lending facility signed with MARFIN EGNATIA Bank also includes lease financing possibilities.
EIB Vice-President Plutarchos Sakellaris stated on the occasion: “This new signature sends a strong message of support for Greek small and medium-sized investments. This is the second EIB signature for SMEs within the last two months in Greece. It brings our newly signed support to EUR 680 million. As our partner banks match this amount with an equivalent amount from their own resources, a total of EUR 1.3 billion flows in the Greek real economy. I am confident that our increasingly rich relationship with Greek banks comes at a timely moment to ease SME funding in this difficult period. We are placing our EU-wide knowledge of the SME market, our close relations with the banking sector and our ability to fund on keen terms at the service of the real economy”.
ATEbank’s Governor, Mr Demetrios Miliakos stated: "We are very happy today about the renewal of the cooperation between ATEbank and the European Investment Bank, which had been interrupted since 1986. This cooperation is more timely than ever, in the middle of this unprecedented world-wide crisis. ATEbank, which was not very active in the field of SMEs financing, has surpassed itself in recent years, taking a leading role in the provision of working capital to SMEs. In the first quarter of 2009, ATEbank provided a total of EUR 2 billion to 12 000 SMEs, which, in their majority, were not its clients before. This year, together with the EUR 100 million of EIB financing, our target is to provide a minimum of EUR 500 million, i.e. double compared to last year, to support the investment initiatives of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. The support for investments in the key sector of SMEs is intended for the modernisation and extension of already existing plants. Emphasis is put on the energy, competitiveness and natural environment sectors, which are crucial for the reinforcement of the competitiveness of products and services."
The Managing Director of MARFIN POPULAR BANK, Mr Efthimios Bouloutas stated: “We are delighted to participate in this new EIB SME financing facility in Greece. The contract that we are signing today provides the basis for strong collaboration between the European Investment Bank and Marfin Egnatia Bank and constitutes a very important lending arrangement designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, this new financing facility will offer enhanced possibilities for covering the liquidity needs of Greek SMEs, in the fields of industry, agro-industry, commercial services and tourism, as well as small infrastructure projects undertaken by public and private promoters in Greece. We are committed to working together with the EIB to restore the growth that can only come from strong and flourishing small enterprises”.
These loans come under the heading of the EIB’s SME support policy of helping small firms gain access to credit by increasing flexibility, simplifying procedures, and – in return – requiring greater transparency from intermediary banks, which must clearly inform their customers of the way in which the EIB funds improve their lending terms by allowing longer maturities, more flexible disbursement conditions and lower interest rates. As an innovative feature, it may be used to finance not only traditional investment in fixed assets, but also investment in the intangibles that are essential to companies’ growth such as RDI or the creation of distribution networks.
In a bid to cushion the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy, in September 2008 the Council of EU Finance Ministers meeting in Nice called on the EIB to make available EUR 15 billion in 2008-2009 to underpin investment by Europe's small firms, as part of an overall package of EUR 30 billion. The EIB extensively revised its product offering for SMEs in 2008, developing a new lending formula called the EIB loan for SMEs, which is designed to be simpler, more flexible and more transparent to benefit a greater number of small businesses. The two new loans mentioned in this press release have been agreed under these new conditions which significantly improve the way in which the EU's long-term lending institution is able to support small and medium-sized firms. In Greece, in addition to the two loan agreements finalised on 27 May, the EIB signed on 4 April a total of EUR 500 million with Alpha Bank and Eurobank EFG.