The EIB and Deutsche Leasing have signed a EUR 100 million promotional lending agreement. 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.

• Loans target small businesses in Germany and Europe
• EU bank and Deutsche Leasing take forward successful cooperation

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Deutsche Leasing have signed a EUR 100 million promotional lending agreement. 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.

As the EU’s financing arm, the EIB pays particular attention to supporting small businesses, which form the backbone of the economy in Germany and the rest of Europe. Europe-wide, the financing of the EIB Group (the EU bank plus the European Investment Fund - EIF) reached a record volume of over EUR 33 billion last year, partly because the EIF expanded its enterprise support. 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, responsible for operations in Germany, 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. So I am delighted that we are taking our successful cooperation forward with this new agreement”.

Deutsche Leasing also welcomed the agreement: “Four years ago we had a very good experience with setting up a joint promotional lending facility with the EIB” said Kai Ostermann, Chairman of Deutsche Leasing Group’s Board. “For small German businesses it is important to have at their side financing partners that support their Europe-wide investment projects simply and directly”.