Alleanza di Garanzia sign EUR 449.5 million CIP deal, the first in Italy

Alleanza di Garanzia is a specially-created joint venture of regional guarantee institutions, operating in Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany. In addition to financing SMEs' business development, this guarantee deal also features new products for the SME market which aim to foster investments in Research, Development and Innovation and a greater focus on eco-innovation.

Commenting on the agreement, the European Investment Fund Chief Executive Richard Pelly said "We are pleased to be signing the first guarantee deal in Italy under the CIP programme. Our renewed commitment to Alleanza di Garanzia comes at a time when we expect that the impact of this deal on local businesses will be significant. We are confident that we will continue to see positive results from this cooperation."

The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme has helped to create the Alleanza di Garanzia partnership, bringing together a number of guarantee organisations who can now jointly provide more and better access to finance to SMEs. 

For Giorgio Guarena, CEO of Unionfidi Piemonte, the coordinating organisation of the joint venture, "This new agreement with EIF marks the continuity of a business relationship begun in 1999 and successfully maintained over the years. CIP comes in a difficult moment for the economy in general and for SMEs' access to finance in particular: it will improve the situation through the regional guarantee institutions, by supporting and expanding their activities and risk-taking."

As a network of guarantee organisations, Alleanza di Garanzia improves SMEs' access to finance and negotiates with banks more favourable lending conditions for them, including lower borrowing costs and reduced collateral requirements. 

Most members of Alleanza di Garanzia also worked with the EIF under the Multiannual Programme (MAP, CIP's predecessor) and supported over 9,000 SMEs.

Alleanza di Garanzia Press Releases

You can read the Press Releases of the members of the Alleanza di Garanzia here:

• Unionfidi Piemonte
• Confidi Province Lombarde
• Neafidi
• Fidi Toscana
• Fidindustria Emilia Romagna

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 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