The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a EUR 10 million agreement with SAES Getters, an Italian company active in special metallurgy and materials science. Made available by the EIB and 50% guaranteed by the country’s export credit agency SACE, the loan to SAES will finance its research, development and innovation (RDI) activities in order to further develop and apply its expertise and competencies in metal science know-how.

SAES is a strongly RDI focused Group developing advanced material technologies that can be used in a large variety of products applied in different industries (i.e. consumer electronics, medical devices, scientific and research systems, automotive, lighting and telecommunications).

In addition, SAES cooperates with Universities and R&D centers (i.e. particle accelerators like CERN in Europe, ESRF in France, PSI in Switzerland, KEK in Japan, Cornell USA or SSRF in China), to which it inter alia provides research infrastructure equipment and services.

This transaction is supported by the new generation of financial instruments for innovative and growth companies “InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators”, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020. “InnovFin MidCap Growth Finance” is specifically dedicated to improving access to risk finance for research and innovation projects of midcap and SME companies in the European Union.

Background information:

European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.

SAES Group

A pioneer in the development of getter technology, the SAES® Group is the world leader in a variety of scientific and industrial applications where stringent vacuum conditions or ultra-pure gases are required. In more than 70 years of activity, the Group’s getter solutions have been supporting innovation in the information display and lamp industries, in sophisticated high vacuum systems and in vacuum thermal insulation, in technologies spanning from large vacuum power tubes to miniaturized silicon-based microelectronic and micromechanical devices. The Group also holds a leading position in ultra-pure gas refinement for the semiconductor and other high-tech markets.

Starting in 2004, by leveraging the core competencies in special metallurgy and in the materials science, the SAES Group has expanded its business into the advanced material markets, in particular the market of shape memory alloys, a family of materials characterized by super elasticity and by the property of assuming predefined forms when subjected to heat treatment. These special alloys, which today are mainly applied in the biomedical sector, are also perfectly suited to the realization of actuator devices for the industrial sector (domotics, white goods industry, consumer electronics and automotive sector).

More recently, SAES has expanded its business by developing components whose getter functions, traditionally obtained from the exploitation of the special features of some metals, are instead generated by chemical processes. Thanks to these new developments, SAES is evolving, adding to its competencies in the field of special metallurgy also those of organic chemicals.

A total production capacity distributed in ten facilities, a worldwide-based sale & service network and more than 900 employees allow the Group to combine multicultural skills and expertise to form a truly global enterprise.

SAES Group is headquartered in the Milan area (Italy).

SAES Getters S.p.A. is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange Market, STAR segment, since 1986.

More information on the SAES Group are available in the website www.saesgetters.com.

InnovFin financial products

Under Horizon 2020, the new EU research programme for 2014-20, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank Group (EIB and EIF) have launched a new generation of financial instruments and advisory services to help innovative firms access finance more easily. Over the next seven years, "InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators" will offer a range of tailored products which will make available more than EUR 24bn of financing support for research and innovation (R&I) by small, medium-sized and large companies and the promoters of research infrastructures. This finance is expected to support up to EUR 48bn of final R&I investments.

InnovFin builds on the success of the Risk-Sharing Finance Facility developed under the seventh EU framework programme for research and technological development (FP7), which financed 114 R&I projects to the tune of EUR 11.3bn and in addition provided loan guarantees worth over EUR 1.4bn.

Backed by funds set aside under Horizon 2020 and by the EIB Group, InnovFin financial products support R&I activities, which by their nature are riskier and harder to assess than traditional investments, and therefore often face difficulties in accessing finance. All are demand-driven instruments, with no prior allocations between sectors, countries or regions. Firms and other entities located in EU Member States and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries will be eligible as final beneficiaries. These debt instruments will be complemented in the near future by a suite of equity instruments managed by the EIF.

InnovFin MidCap Growth Finance offers long-term senior, subordinated or mezzanine loans from EUR 7.5 to 25m for innovative larger midcaps (up to 3000 employees), but also SMEs and small midcaps.