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Annual Report 2011
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financial instruments in order to help them develop their risk
capital markets and achieve sustainable growth. In 2011,
EIF signed two new Holding Fund agreements bring-
ing total assets under management to EUR 1.22bn with
14 Holding Funds in ten European countries.
In particular and firmly establishing its position as a coun-
ter-cyclical finance provider, EIF stepped up its engage-
ment in Greece with six new contracts signed in 2011.
EIF was also active in other parts of Europe, providing
excellence in country-focussed funds-of-funds manage-
ment, including the fast deployment of the United King-
dom Future Technologies Fund (UKFTF) resources with five
signatures in under a year and EUR 77m deployed.
Within the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA)
context, EIF’s first initiative in Turkey, the Greater Anatolia
Guarantee Facility (GAGF), already reached 2,700 SMEs
representing a total of EUR 150m of lending in its first nine
months of operation. In addition, EUR 91.5m was signed in
Turkey via the Istanbul Venture Capital initiative, iVCi.
Outlook
In the current discussions concerning the next European
Union programming period (2014-2020), EIF has been
working intensively with the European Commission to
prepare for the future and a number of new instruments
are envisaged. EIF will continue to support the EU 2020
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objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth by
developing various innovative pilot projects.
Pilot instruments include a risk sharing instrument (RSI) to be
used in coordination with the EIB to provide debt finance for
innovative businesses in the context of the EU 2020 strategy.
EIF has also designed new equity pilot initiatives such as a
Business Angels fund in Germany, a Luxembourgish innova-
tion platform, and a social impact investment fund-of-fund.
EIF will continue to expand its reach to new counterparts
and regions, establishing new country-specific initiatives
to respond to the needs of local markets, attracting ad-
ditional resources from its mandators and developing tar-
geted products and tools.
EIF will intensify its cooperation and partnership with na-
tional promotional institutions to ensure the complementarity
of EU programmes and national schemes.
The European Progress Microfinance products were
successfully rolled out: 14 agreements were signed with
12 micro-lenders in nine countries across the EU for total
commitments of over EUR 64.4m. These encouraging re-
sults, which meet the 2011 target, have generated a total
volume of over EUR 130m in new micro-loans.
Overall, EUR 67.1m of microfinance signatures catalysed
EUR 140m of additional resources.
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The EU 2020 strategy promotes smart, sustainable and inclusive growth for the EU Member States and sets a number of objectives in the fields
of innovation, employment, social inclusion, education and energy.
Loans
Equity
Guarantees
2011 Microfinance signatures by type – in EUR m
Signatures
Catalysed volume
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
67
140
61
102
8
30
2
4
EIF also provided technical assistance and financial sup-
port through other programmes and initiatives such as the
Joint Action to Support Microfinance Institutions in Europe
Technical Assistance (JASMINE TA).
Additionally, with the signature of the Sicily Holding Fund, un-
der the European Social Fund (ESF) in December 2010, EIF
extended its support for micro-enterprises across mandates.
Regional development and financial
engineering
Through its regional development activities, EIF has sup-
ported less developed regions in Europe with targeted