The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's financing institution, announces a global loan for FRF 700 million (1) to Crédit Commercial de France (CCF) for funding smaller scale industrial and service-sector ventures plus environmental protection and energy conservation schemes. The credit line may also be used to support projects in the health sector.
The EIB global loan will be drawn on by CCF and its regional subsidiaries to provide long and medium-term loans, leasing facilities and leasing finance for private enterprises, mainly SMEs, as well as for local authorities and their concessionholders.
The operation represents a further example of EIB backing for investment by SMEs. An established EIB partner in France, CCF has, since 1993, already deployed the proceeds of four similar global loans totalling FRF 2.2 billion in favour of over 6 000 ventures promoted by SMEs and representing aggregate capital investment of some FRF 4.7 billion. The bulk of financing took the form of leasing facilities for SMEs, arranged by CCF's subsidiaries, notably Loxxia.
One of the goals of the EIB is to underpin capital investment by SMEs and local authorities through global loans concluded with around 120 banks in the European Union. These loans are akin to lines of credit which the partner financing institutions draw on to fund ventures in compliance with EIB lending criteria. Over the past five years, some ECU 18.5 billion have been advanced by the EIB in this way to assist almost 56 000 SMEs. In France, during the same period, more than 23 000 SMEs have attracted EIB credit through French banking institutions.The global loan to CCF also falls partly within the scope of the Amsterdam Special Action Programme (ASAP) set up by the EIB to foster growth and employment in Europe over the years up to 2000. Under ASAP, the EIB has widened the scope of its financing to encompass the labour-intensive sectors of health and education.
(1) The conversion rates used by the EIB for statistical purposes during the current quarter are those obtaining on 30 September 1998, when ECU 1 = GBP 0.69, IEP 0.79 FRF 6.58 and USD 1.17159.