Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / EximBank granted to companies that run european projects twice as many incentives as in 2010

Within the first four months of 2011, EximBank has granted total incentives worth over RON 200 M to the companies that run projects with European financing – twice as much as in the whole year 2010.

“From the beginning of the year to the end of April, we supported over 30 companies to implement projects with European financing. These projects are worth RON 370 M in total, which accounts for more than twice the value of projects supported during the whole last year. We plan to become involved, to a greater extent, in supporting the companies that run projects with European money, and we believe that results show the significant progress we made,” said Ionut Costea, President of EximBank.

Many of the projects that benefited from EximBank incentives this year targeted investments in the animal breeding sector – farms and shelters – within Measure 121 – ‘Modernising the agricultural holdings’ within the National Rural Development Programme 2007-2013.

“We expect a significant increase of the number of projects with European financing supported by EximBank this year, because – on one hand – companies have an ever-increasing interest for drawing European money, while – on the other – we are ready to take the requests of economic entities and we have the money to do it. Furthermore, we focus on promoting the successful partnerships we had with various companies in this segment, and thus to convince other entrepreneurs to apply for projects with non-reimbursable funds,” Ionut Costea mentioned.

For EximBank, 2010 was the first year when its strategy focused on supporting companies with European projects, after the bank launched a complex package of products dedicated to this category of companies.

Depending on the type of project, EximBank may provide investment loans aimed at co-financing the component that represents the company’s own contribution. With this product, a company that signed a financing contract with the management authority may obtain 100 pc of the value of eligible and non-eligible expenses implied by its own contribution.

Additionally, the bank provides pre-financing loans meant to cover the gap between the moment when a company pays its providers in the project and the moment when it receives the money from the management authority. This type of loan can cover up to 100 pc of the European financing granted to the beneficiary.

The package also includes comfort letters through which the bank shows its willingness to make available to the company the funds needed to sustain the project, on condition that it is accepted by the management authority. Furthermore, EximBank can guarantee the loans engaged by companies with other commercial banks, in view of implementing projects with structural funds.