The European Investment Fund (EIF) and APS Bank have signed the first SME financing agreement in Malta under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe.
The agreement will allow APS to provide low-cost loans to innovative SMEs in Malta over the next two years.
EIF’s guarantee is provided under the ‘EU InnovFin finance for Innovators’ initiative with the financial backing under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The agreement would not have been possible so soon without the backing of the Investment Plan.
The facility provides guarantees on debt financing of between €25,000 and €7.5 million
This deal is the first activity under the Investment Plan for Europe in Malta. Just over a year after the European Fund for Strategic Investments began operating to boost jobs and growth in the EU, the Plan now spans 27 EU countries.
EIF CEO Pier Luigi Gilibert said: “I am very pleased to be signing the first InnovFin EFSI transaction in Malta, especially considering that today’s transaction with APS brings the total number of EU countries to benefit from EFSI to 27. Thanks to this EFSI deal, I am confident APS will be able to expand its support to Maltese SMEs by combining the InnovFin guarantee with their existing financing solutions.”
APS Bank CEO Marcel Cassar said: “We are proud to be associated with the EIF in bringing this programme to Maltese SMEs. APS Bank has a history of supporting innovation and enterprise of small and medium-sized firms and our involvement in facilitating their access to finance will be stepped up going forward.”
The EIF is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe’s SMEs by helping them to access finance. The Investment Plan for Europe focuses on strengthening European investments to create jobs and growth. It does so by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects. The EIB estimates that by July the European Fund for Strategic Investments triggered more than €115.7 billion of investment in Europe.
The InnovFin SME Guarantee Facility provides guarantees and counter-guarantees on debt financing of between €25,000 and €7.5 million in order to improve access to loan finance for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and small mid-caps (up to 499 employees). The facility is managed by EIF, and is rolled out through financial intermediaries – banks and other financial institutions – in EU Member States and associated countries.