EIF invests €20 million of NextGenerationEU funds through the Spanish Autonomous Resilience Fund in Arcano Private Debt II, a fund to support sustainability-oriented small businesses and mid-caps

• This is the EIF’s first investment under the Regional Resilience Fund created by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise to invest a portion of NextGenerationEU loans into environmental and social projects in Spain’s     autonomous communities.
• Arcano Private Debt II is an Arcano Partners-managed private debt fund with a target size of €150 million to €200 million.
•  Arcano Private Debt II achieves first closing for €90 million.
•  Its investment strategy focuses on senior debt for sustainability-oriented small businesses and mid-caps.

Madrid, 15 January 2025: The European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB Group, has invested €20 million in Arcano Private Debt II S.C.A. SICAV-RAIF ELTIF (“Arcano Private Debt II”) the Arcano Private Debt II fund to support sustainability-focused small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-caps. The investment is being made with NextGenerationEU funds under the Spanish Regional Resilience Fund (Fondo de Resiliencia Autonómica – FRA). Arcano Private Debt II is a European long-term private debt fund with a target size between €150 million and €200 million managed by Arcano Partners, a leading independent financial advisory and alternative asset management firm. Arcano Private Debt II achieves first closing for €90 million.

This is the EIF’s first investment via its Alternative Lending Instrument for Sustainable Development, which facilitates SME financing in areas such as innovation, sustainability and competitiveness. This instrument is one of two launched by the EIF under the Regional Resilience Fund.

The Regional Resilience Fund channels financing from Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan under the NextGenerationEU recovery instrument to boost environmental and social investments in the autonomous communities. The Regional Resilience Fund is led by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise and is supported by the autonomous communities and cities and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), with the EIB Group as a strategic management partner.

Spanish Treasury Director General for International Finance Inés Carpio stated the importance of this operation, which “Highlights the public sector's support for the development of more diversified and flexible sources of financing for SMEs and midcaps.

We are confident that we will soon be able to see more operations that allow public funds to be channelled through alternative sources of financing.”

EIF Chief Investment Officer Marco Marrone added, “We are delighted to join forces with Arcano Partners to make the financing of sustainability-oriented Spanish SMEs and mid-caps easier. It is also the EIF’s first investment made with Regional Resilience Fund resources, with more to follow in the coming weeks expanding innovation, sustainability and competitiveness financing options for SMEs.”

Arcano Private Debt II is seeking to make at least 20 investments, with a diversified portfolio and an average ticket size of €5 million to €15 million per investment. It will prioritise companies promoting sustainability and having a positive impact.

In addition to the EIF, the fund is backed by other institutional investors such as Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy’s leading economic development finance institution and whose majority shareholder is the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Credit Strategies Partner at Arcano Partners Alexandre Bruyelle said, “It is an honour for Arcano to be the first firm to receive a mandate from the European Investment Fund to launch such a comprehensive initiative to provide Spanish and European companies with access to the finance they need for their growth, digitalisation and sustainability plans. This programme will enable us to promote local economic development and make a positive impact on communities in European regions.”

Arcano Private Debt II had already received a €15 million EIF investment from InvestEU programme resources. An additional €20 million is now being provided from the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan via the Regional Resilience Fund and, more specifically, the Alternative Lending Instrument for Sustainable Development intermediated by the EIF.

Background information

About the Regional Resilience Fund

The Regional Resilience Fund was created to facilitate access to NextGenerationEU loans from the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the autonomous communities, with the aim of boosting investment and developing projects in eight priority areas: social and affordable housing; urban renewal; transport and sustainable tourism; the energy transition; water and waste management; the care economy; research, development and innovation; and the competitiveness of industry and SMEs.

The fund is led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise. Project selection is performed with the input of the autonomous communities and cities, and of the FEMP. The EIB is the strategic partner for management of the fund.

In June 2024, the EIB and the Spanish Ministry of Economy signed the agreement to launch the Regional Resilience Fund and activate the first phase of available financing totalling up to €3.4 billion, including:

• a direct facility to co-finance EIB-supported operations in sectors such as renewable energy, clean transport and sustainable infrastructure
• an intermediated facility to be invested by financial intermediaries selected by the EIB, to support urban development and sustainable tourism projects
• two instruments intermediated by the European Investment Fund (EIF) that will facilitate SME financing in areas such as innovation, sustainability and competitiveness.

About the European Investment Fund

The EIF is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's microenterprises and SMEs by helping them to access finance. The EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, it contributes to the achievement of key EU policy goals such as competitiveness and growth, innovation and digitalisation, social impact, skills and human capital, climate action and environmental sustainability.

About Arcano Partners

Arcano Partners, founded in 2003, is an independent global firm with more than 20 years of experience in international financial advisory and private markets’ asset management. Arcano currently has four business areas:

• Asset Management, with more than €11 billion managed and advised since the start of its activity in 2006, and with six asset classes: Private Equity, Credit Strategies, Real Estate, Sus-tainable Infrastructure, Venture Capital and Aviation Finance; Arcano has a strong focus on sustainability and responsible investment, being one of the benchmark asset managers in ESG.
• Investment Banking provides advisory services in M&A, refinancing, restructuring and capi-tal markets transactions to companies in various sectors; Arcano has specialized teams by sector, and additionally offers a transversal technology/digital approach.
• Research & Consulting provides economic, real estate and differential market analysis, as well as geopolitical and technological analysis of both local and global trends. This analysis is extremely useful for optimizing business decisions, especially in environments of extreme uncertainty where the impacts of making mistakes are profound and can be mitigated by in-vesting in quality analysis.
• Asset Finance, an area that allows investors to participate in the creation of solutions for the financing of real or intangible assets in Spain.

Arcano Partners has a team of more than 260 professionals of more than 20 nationalities across 7 offices in Europe and the United States and has become one of the independent firms of reference in the European private markets industry.

Press contacts:

EIF

Maite Cordero, m.corderomunoz@eib.org, tel. +34 606 66 82 62

Website: www.eif.org – Press Office: +352 4379 21000 – press@eib.org

X: @eif_eu 

Arcano Partners

Mónica Pastor: mpastor@kreab.com 

Ana Cabirta: acabirta@kreab.com 

Alicia Hernández: ahernandez@kreab.com