The European Commission and Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) have signed today an InvestEU guarantee agreement worth up to €210 million. The agreement is expected to mobilise more than €3 billion in investments. With this agreement, BPF becomes the first Portuguese InvestEU implementing partner.
BPF will utilise the European Union guarantee of the InvestEU programme to mobilise investments in Portugal using three of its "policy windows": Sustainable Infrastructure, SMEs as well as Social Investment and Skills. The investments will cover sustainable transport, the support of SMEs and small midcaps including their research, innovation and digitisation activities, as well as loans for social infrastructure projects.
In total, the EU provides an InvestEU guarantee amount of up to €210 million to BPF to share financing risks. This allows BPF, in close cooperation with the national Mutual Counter-Guarantee Fund and regional guarantee societies, to provide guarantees to commercial banks that lend to companies for their investments. The InvestEU guarantee also supports direct lending by BPF to final recipients in the field of social infrastructure investments.
The Portuguese Minister of Economy, Pedro Reis, stated: "This agreement is unparalleled (and unprecedented in terms of value in recent years), as it will enable the Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) to provide over €3 billion in financing to enterprises in critical areas such as sustainable investment, innovation, and mobility. This initiative holds particular significance for Portuguese SMEs at a crucial juncture for reigniting more vigorous growth within the Portuguese economy. It also marks an important signal of the operationalisation and streamlining of the BPF, an institution we have committed to from its inception, and particularly reinforced by this Government, and which is, indeed, the only national implementing partner of InvestEU."
Ana Carvalho, CEO of Banco Português de Fomento, points out: "BPF is playing an extraordinarily important role in promoting national investment by mobilising more than €3 billion as InvestEU's first and only national implementing partner in Portugal. This process has required a long journey for BPF, with several internal changes and adaptation of operational systems to ensure compliance with European rules and the reporting needs of the InvestEU programme. This agreement represents another important milestone for BPF and strengthens our cooperation with the EU towards shared priorities, such as the green and digital transition, and will enable us to make essential resources available to the economy so that more companies and viable projects have the necessary conditions to grow and compete in an increasingly challenging global economic landscape."
Background information:
The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investment for EU policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
Banco Português de Fomento's (BPF) mission is to support Portugal's economic and social development by creating and providing innovative, competitive, and appropriate solutions to the needs and challenges of the business ecosystem, boosting entrepreneurial capacity, investment, and job creation, and promoting the country's sustainability and economic, social, and territorial cohesion. Learn more here: https://www.bpfomento.pt/
BPF applied to the Commission's Call for Expression of Interest for the InvestEU Fund and was selected as an implementing partner of the EU. The EU supports BPF through a risk-sharing arrangement to deploy four financial products, aiding in unlocking finance for the Portuguese economy.
