Loans for 580 million euros are on the way to Italian companies. This is the result of the four agreements signed today in Milan between the European Investment Bank and Unicredit. These will be medium to long-term loans.
To use the ceiling made available by the EIB, four areas of intervention have been identified: in addition to loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (400 million) and for mid-caps (50 million), part of the credit lines are intended for companies for environmental protection and renewable energy programs (100 million). A final tranche of 30 million will be allocated to Industria 2015, an initiative aimed at financing research and development projects selected by the Ministry of Economic Development in specific thematic areas.
“Small and medium-sized enterprises are the hardest hit by the long crisis gripping Europe and Italy – commented Dario Scannapieco, EIB vice president and head of operations in Italy, Malta and the Western Balkans -. Access to credit has become their priority in recent months. With these operations, the EIB, thanks to the collaboration with Unicredit, one of our main partners at European level, is making its finances characterized by long maturities and favorable rates available to the Italian productive world".
According to Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of Unicredit, “the new agreements with the EIB formalized today add precious resources to our continuous and robust support to small and medium-sized Italian enterprises. Our proximity to SMEs and widespread knowledge of the local area allow us to quickly channel resources towards businesses, in order to maximize the effectiveness of these investment financing tools, which are vital for the competitiveness of the Italian production system”.
The loans are aimed at both new investments and ongoing ones that have not yet been completed. As far as SMEs are concerned, the projects cannot exceed the amount of 25 million. The interventions may concern the purchase, construction, extension and restructuring of buildings; the purchase of plant, equipment, vehicles or machinery; expenses, ancillary charges and intangible assets related to projects, including research, development and innovation costs; the permanent need for working capital linked to the operational activity.
Unicredit also undertakes to provide its own resources to SMEs, thus increasing the overall ceiling available to the Italian economic system in the form of additional loans.
