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EBRD, EU and Société Générale Group support small businesses
€30 million for entrepreneurs in Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending €20 million to Franfinance Czech Republic, s.r.o., and €10 million to Franfinance Polska, to support the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech and Slovak Republics and in Poland. The loan to Franfinance Czech Republic is complemented with up to €2.6 million in performance fees and €100,000 in technical assistance funds funded by the European Union. The loan to Franfinance Polska is complemented with up to €1.3 million in performance fees and €100,000 in technical assistance funds from the European Union.
The loans are extended under the leasing window of the EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility, a joint programme of the European Commission and the EBRD to support the development and growth of entrepreneurs by facilitating their access to finance. The Bank has committed €700 million, of which €495 million has been disbursed by local banks and leasing companies via 19,000 loans and leases. The EC has committed €130 million in grant financing and for technical assistance since the facility’s launch in 1999.
Alain Pilloux, EBRD Business Group Director for Central and Eastern Europe, said that the loan will help SMEs and micro companies to successfully compete in increasingly open and challenging markets. Jonathan Woollett, Director for Non-Bank Financial Institutions at the EBRD, added that the Bank is pleased to have developed a number of projects recently with Société Générale. This shows an increasing commitment of one of Europe’s strongest and largest banks to the EBRD’s countries of operations and the EBRD is prepared to enhance this cooperation further.
Franfinance Czech Republic and Franfinance Polska are direct subsidiaries of GEFA specialised financial services company, which is itself a subsidiary of Société Générale Group. Christian Eymery and Reinhold Knoedl, General Managers of Franfinance Czech Republic said that their company is focused on small and medium-sized companies: “Currently close to 50 per cent of our leasing portfolio is extended to SMEs, and we intend to develop SME leasing further by using this facility and our own resources”, Mr. Eymery said.
Lech Zeyer of Franfinance Polska stressed that SME leasing requires a specific approach in terms of marketing, appraisal and monitoring of the portfolio. The intention of Franfinance Polska is to develop its activities in the different regions of Poland to facilitate access to finance where it is needed most.
The Phare programme is one of three pre-accession instruments financed by the EC to assist the candidate countries of central and eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the European Union. In 2000-2006, Phare is providing some €11 billion of co-financing for projects in the EU accession countries. (For further information see: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/)
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