First Austrian CIP deal signed with Austria Wirtschaftsservice

The CIP programme allows AWS to expand its recently launched micro loan guarantee initiative (guarantees for working capital and investment loans) and provide its guarantees through its young entrepreneur programme (guarantees for loans to start-ups) at attractive conditions.

EIF Chief Executive, Mr Pelly said "We are pleased to be working with AWS again as we seek to provide support for more Austrian SMEs during this challenging period. I am sure this partnership will help to supply the much needed financing to Austrian SMEs."

During this period of financial turmoil and in the face of increasingly cautious lending markets the timing of this new guarantee agreement is indeed particularly significant. The recent amendment to Austrian legislation which led to the almost doubling of AWS guarantee limits means that with this new EIF agreement AWS will be able to guarantee more loans to Austrian SMEs.

Commenting on the transaction, Johann Moser und Kurt Leutgeb, Executive Directors of AWS said: "Thanks to the CIP guarantee from the European Union, we will facilitate access to finance for an increased number of SMEs. This EU initiative to promote the competitiveness and innovation (CIP) is in the light of the current credit crunch more important than ever".

Background information:

The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), which spans from 2007 to 2013, has been put in place to boost European productivity, innovation capacity and sustainable growth, whilst simultaneously addressing complementary environmental concerns.

Within the framework of the CIP, the European Investment Fund (EIF) has been allocated EUR 1.1bn to be split between venture capital - with the High Growth and Innovative SME Facility (GIF) - and guarantees - with the SME Guarantee Facility (SMEG).

Under the SMEG, financial institutions are encouraged to enhance access to finance for SMEs.  The facility offers an excellent tool to allocate additional financing volumes for those SMEs that would not otherwise have access to resources and financial engineering instruments because of the increased lending risk entailed.  As such, The SMEG complements and broadens EIF's own product offering.

The EU CIP SMEG Facility gives the EIF the opportunity to play an essential role in supporting sustainable job creation and entrepreneurship in European SMEs. 

About AWS

Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS) is Austria's national promotional bank. It is set to implement the key objectives of the Austrian government's economic policies. Created in 2002 by the merger of four existing organizations - the BÜRGES promotional bank for SMEs (1954), the Finance Guarantee Company (1969), the Innovation Agency (1984) and the ERP fund (1962) - it offers a broad range of company-specific investment promotion programmes and services - from the pre-seed phase up to the expansion stage.

About EIF

The EIF central mission is to support Europe's SMEs by helping them to access finance.  EIF designs and develops venture capital and guarantees instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, the EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment.

For further information, please contact David Yormesor, d.yormesor@eif.org