EIB agrees €100m loan with Deutsche Leasing

Deutsche Leasing will use the EIB loan to provide finance for firms in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and midcaps (firms with up to 3,000 employees) undertaking long-term projects.

There is a possibility of increasing this EU bank loan to Deutsche Leasing by EUR 50 million to EUR 150 million at a later date.

Last year, the financing of the EIB Group (the EU bank plus the European Investment Fund – EIF) reached a record volume of over €33 billion across Europe.

Owing to the large number of SMEs and midcaps in Europe, the EIB Group works together with so-called financial intermediaries like Deutsche Leasing in this field.

EIB vice-president Ambroise Fayolle, said “Small businesses in Germany and in Europe as a whole play an incredibly important role in innovation, growth and employment, so supporting them has become one of the EIB Group’s top priorities.

“In 2016 alone, some 300,000 firms with over 4.4 million employees benefited from our favourable financing terms. But we can only achieve this if we work together with institutions like Deutsche Leasing, which have superb local investment funding know-how, and not only in Germany but throughout Europe, making them the EU bank’s ideal partner.”

Kai Ostermann, chairman of Deutsche Leasing Group’s board, said: “Four years ago we had a very good experience with setting up a joint promotional lending facility with the EIB.

“For small German businesses it is important to have at their side financing partners that support their Europe-wide investment projects simply and directly”.