The European Investment Fund and the Romanian Ministry of European Funds have launched a €59.3m funds-of-funds for SMEs.
The Competitiveness Fund will finance SMEs via several financial intermediaries with resources from the Competitiveness Operational Programme 2014-2020, co-financed through European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
€40m will be dedicated to entrepreneurship and seed funds for innovative companies and €19m will be dedicated to a portfolio risk sharing loan instrument.
FinSMEs
26/09/2016
PRESS RELEASE
EIF and the Romanian Ministry of European Funds launch EUR 59.3m Competitiveness Fund-of-Funds for SMEs
Date: 22 September 2016 – The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Romanian Ministry of European Funds signed a Funding Agreement to establish the Competitiveness Fund-of-Funds, which will finance SMEs via several financial intermediaries with EUR 59 million with resources from the Competitiveness Operational Programme 2014-2020, co-financed through European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
EUR 40m of the Fund of Funds will be dedicated to entrepreneurship and seed funds for innovative companies and EUR 19m will be dedicated to a portfolio risk sharing loan instrument.
The signature is a natural continuation of the successful JEREMIE initiative, through which 3 instruments were created (portfolio risk sharing loan, portfolio guarantee, equity fund). The EUR 225m JEREMIE allocation has to-date catalysed over 6,000 new loans and investments in total value over EUR 600m.
The Romanian Minister of EU Funds, Cristian Ghinea, stated: “The utilisation of financial instruments is an important step towards the future. We have to think already of the next phase when EU funds will be spent mostly as financial instruments rather than grants.”
The European Investment Fund Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert, stated: “The successful implementation of the JEREMIE initiative encouraged the continuation of our partnership with the Government of Romania in support of small and medium sized enterprises. Based on past achievements, we can now enlarge the range of financial instruments, providing business ideas the needed support to grow and innovate.”