Additional EUR 800 million for SMEs as EIF and ProCredit double support for innovative companies

The EIF-backed financing is now available
through ProCredit banks in South Eastern and Eastern Europe and targets companies
using new technologies and producing new products in one of the eleven
countries where the facility is available (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia,
Romania, Serbia and Ukraine). To date, agreements with ProCredit have already
supported around 2,000 innovative SMEs, predominantly in the sectors Manufacturing
and Wholesale and Retail Trade, and many more will be financed in the coming
years.

These agreements were signed under the European
Commission’s InnovFin initiative, backed by the EU’s research and innovation
programme Horizon 2020. The InnovFin initiative enables participating banks to
provide loans to innovative companies with the support of a guarantee provided
by the EIF. The agreements signed in EU Member State countries were made
possible by the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).
The EFSI is the central pillar of the European Commission's Investment Plan for Europe, also known
as the “Juncker Plan”.

European Commission
Vice-President Jyrki Katainen,
responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: “Two years after we announced EUR 820 million
for SMEs in eleven countries, the European Investment Fund and ProCredit are doubling
their financial support, meaning EUR 1.62 billion is now available in financing
for small and medium sized companies across these countries. This continued and
increased level of support from the EU will make a tangible difference to
thousands of people with innovative business ideas in need of a financing,
adding to the 2,000 SMEs that have already benefited from this scheme.”

EIF Chief Executive Pier Luigi
Gilibert said: “We are delighted that InnovFin SME guarantee agreements with
the ProCredit banks are yielding such positive results. ProCredit’s
well-established distribution network, combined with its SME lending expertise,
ensures that EC-backed loans can be rapidly deployed across the eleven
territories. These transactions will help companies to access this EU backed
finance, in order to drive forward an innovation agenda across Europe.”

Dr. Claus-Peter Zeitinger, Chairperson of the
Supervisory Board of ProCredit Holding added: "The extension of
our agreement is an important signal for our group. It shows our clients that
investments by innovative SMEs in South Eastern and Eastern Europe will
continue to be supported by the EU and it also demonstrates that the
developmental contribution made by ProCredit banks in their countries is being
recognised by the EU".

About EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of
the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's
micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them access finance.
EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and
microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this
role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and
development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. More information on
EIF's work under EFSI is available here.

About the ProCredit group

ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA, based in
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is the parent company of the international
ProCredit group, which consists of banks for small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) and whose operational focus is on South Eastern and Eastern Europe. In
addition to this regional focus, the ProCredit group is also present in South
America and Germany. The company’s shares are traded on the Prime Standard
segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The anchor shareholders of ProCredit
Holding AG & Co. KGaA include the strategic investors Zeitinger Invest and
ProCredit Staff Invest (comprising the investment vehicles for ProCredit
staff), the Dutch DOEN Participaties BV, KfW Development Bank and IFC (part of
the World Bank Group). As the group’s super-ordinated company according to the
German Banking Act, ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA is supervised on a
consolidated level by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority
(Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin) and the German Bundesbank.
More information can be found on the company’s website at www.procredit-holding.com.

About ProCredit Bank

ProCredit Bank BiH is a development-oriented
commercial bank specialised in serving small and medium-sized companies.
ProCredit Bank BiH is part of the ProCredit group headquartered in Frankfurt,
Germany. ProCredit Bank BiH is 100% owned by ProCredit Holding, the parent
company of the international ProCredit group. The anchor shareholders of ProCredit Holding AG & Co.
KGaA include the strategic investors Zeitinger Invest and ProCredit Staff
Invest (comprising the investment vehicles for ProCredit staff), the Dutch DOEN
Participates BV, KfW Development Bank and IFC (part of the World Bank Group). ProCredit
BiH fully applies group-wide business principles, such as transparency in
communication with our clients and providing services which are based on both
understanding every client’s needs and on sound financial analysis.

More information on
ProCredit Bank BiH please find here.

About the Juncker Plan

The Investment Plan for Europe, the
so-called "Juncker Plan", is one of the European Commission's top
priorities. It focuses on boosting investments to create jobs and growth by
making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles
to investment and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment
projects. The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is the central
pillar of the Juncker Plan. It provides a first loss guarantee, allowing the
EIB to invest in more, often riskier, projects. The projects and agreements approved for financing under
the EFSI so far are expected to mobilise almost EUR 410 billion in investments
and support around 952,000 SMEs across all 28 Member States.

About InnovFin

The InnovFin SME Guarantee Facility is
established under the "EU InnovFin Finance for Innovators" initiative
developed under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for research and
Innovation. It provides guarantees and counter-guarantees on debt financing of
between EUR 25,000 and EUR 7.5 million in order to improve access to loan
finance for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and small mid-caps (fewer
than 500 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. Under this facility, financial
intermediaries are guaranteed by the EU and EIF against a proportion of their
losses incurred on the debt financing covered under the facility.

Press contact:

Christof Roche, c.roche@eib.org, tel.: +352 43 79 89013 /
Mobile: +32 479 65 05 88

Website: www.eib.org/press – Press
Office: +352 4379 21000 – press@eib.org
          
Tel.: +387 33 250-950
(ext. 170), +387 61 219-127, e-mail: e.cavcic@procreditbank.ba

Andrea Kaufmann, Group Communications, ProCredit
Holding,

Tel.: +49 69 951 437 138, e-mail:
Andrea.Kaufmann@procredit-group.com

Elma Čavčić, PR and marketing,
ProCredit Bank BiH,