EUR 114 M reaches small business in 2015

UAB Investicijų ir verslo garantijos (INVEGA), a company subordinate to the Ministry of Economy and implementing a wide range of financial instruments, helped small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to obtain more than EUR 107 million in financing and issued grants for more than EUR 7 million under different financial instruments in 2015. This means that the business community took advantage of various financing options on more than 7,600 occasions. These results of INVEGA of 2015 were today presented to the Lithuanian Government.

“Much was done in 2015. We successfully continued the implementation of instruments of the EU SF 2007–2013 and finished implementing some of them, prepared for the accreditation which entitles us, as an implementing body, to administer the support from the EU SF 2014–2020, launched a new instrument Guarantee Fund 2, set up the Supervisory Board of INVEGA and renewed the composition of the Board,” INVEGA CEO Audrius Zabotka lists the new features. “To sum it up, we can say that 2015 was indeed a busy year for INVEGA”.

According to Mr. Zabotka, 471 guarantees were issued to SMBs for business loans or leasing transactions in 2015 (5,713 since the beginning of operation). These guarantees helped business entities borrow around EUR 56.6 million (EUR 634.9 million since the beginning of operation). According to information provided by borrowers, the companies supported by INVEGA in the form of SMB loans and leasing guarantees in 2015 have a workforce of 12,218 people and the implementation of projects financed under guaranteed leasing transactions and loans is expected to create about 830 new jobs.

In November 2015, the last compensation for interest paid was disbursed to companies under the instrument of partial financing of interest. In total, support was provided to 3,866 SMBs in the form of compensation of interest of EUR 16.2 million from the EU resources and EUR 1.4 million from the resources returning from the INVEGA Fund.

The implementation of financial instruments of the INVEGA Holding Fund (Open Credit Fund, Participation in the Baltic Innovation Fund, Portfolio Guarantees, Risk Sharing Loans and Guarantee Fund 2) ensured that EUR 326.7 million reached 3,492 SMBs by the end of 2015 making it possible to carry out a number of business projects.

The participation in the Baltic Innovation Fund (BIF), designed to promote the development of venture capital markets of the three Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), was also important in 2015. During the year, the BIF was increased to EUR 130 million. Four fund managers were selected by the end of 2015 and three of them –  BPM Capital, Livonia Partners Fund and BaltCap – were successful in raising private resources to the funds managed by them and started investing in companies (investments in 5 companies were made in 2015).

The implementation of the financial instrument Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund was also significant. Using the support of the European Social Fund, newly set-up companies and start-up entrepreneurs received 147 (1,200 since the beginning) entrepreneurship promotion loans for EUR 2.3 million (EUR 19.5 million since the beginning of the instrument) and 1,272 new jobs were created.

Moreover, to reduce the financial burden for the borrowers under the Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund, some labiur costs of the employers were reimbursed under the instruments Subsidies for Entrepreneurship Promotion. In November 2015, the last compensation for the calculated wages was disbursed to project promoters. In total, 787 companies were supported under this instrument and EUR 4.4 million in labour costs of 2,630 employees was reimbursed.

The instrument Support for First Job, which is being implemented jointly with the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, is aimed at promoting youth employment. Therefore, employers who hired people without any work experience were eligible for partial financing of wages of first-time young workers. In November 2015, the last compensation for the calculated wages was disbursed to project promoters under this instrument. In total, support was provided to 2,744 businesses reimbursing more than EUR 7.9 million in their labour costs for over 22,000 employees.