The European Investment Bank (EIB) announces a EUR 200 million loan focusing especially on small and medium-scale projects aimed at achieving a sustainable, competitive and secure energy supply. The individual loans will be channelled to the beneficiary companies via Deutsche Kreditbank AG (DKB) under a finance contract signed by the EIB and DKB in Luxembourg today.
This agreement with DKB will benefit companies wishing to implement renewable energy and energy security projects, i.e. investment in windpower and photovoltaic facilities or network operation. Public and private sector companies, e.g. municipal utilities, will be able to apply for loans under the programme. It will be possible to finance up to 50% of the total investment costs of each project with EIB funds. The recipient companies will benefit from flexible lending conditions and short arrangement periods as DKB will onlend the EIB resources quickly.
EIB Vice-President Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen said: “The current reorganisation of the energy supply offers the decentralised utilities particularly good business opportunities. But such companies need help to access finance. This is where the EIB comes in, and as a local bank with an excellent knowledge of the sector DKB has already shown itself to be an important and dependable partner.”
“We have been working with the EIB for over ten years” added DKB’s chairman Günther Troppmann. “Previous agreements have enabled us to make individual loans totalling over EUR 1 billion, in which we passed on the financial benefit of EIB funding to our customers in full.”
Background information:
The EIB is the European Union’s bank. Its purpose is to promote the EU’s objectives by providing long-term loans for viable projects. In 2010 new EIB lending totalled EUR 72 billion, including EUR 7.04 billion for projects in Germany. Financing renewable energy and energy efficiency projects is one of the EIB’s priorities.
Headquartered in Berlin, Deutsche Kreditbank AG (DKB) chiefly uses its customer deposits to fund lending to German municipalities and companies. It concentrates on the new German Länder and selected sectors such as housing and agriculture. Renewable energies are also a focus of its business and it has been financing its customers’ investment in the construction and operation of wind, bioenergy and photovoltaic facilities for over 15 years.
Press contact:
DKB: Website: www.dkb.de