2024-07-27 10:58:22
Small and medium enterprises have received more than 2,209 loans, with a total budget of almost 630 million euros, from the Entrepreneurship Fund III, which was recently established by the Hellenic Development Bank and commercial and cooperative banks.
Specifically, as mentioned yesterday during a press conference given by the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis, although the activation of the two sub-programmes of TEPIX III, with a total budget of 2.25 billion euros, is a little more than two months, the budget of Loan Fund has already been used up, while the demand for the Guarantee Fund is moving at a particularly satisfactory rate.
According to Mr. Papathanasis, the loan budget in the Guarantee Fund section amounts to 1.79 billion euros and in the Loan Fund section to 466 million euros.
In the first fund, 846 loans, with a budget of 163 million euros, have been granted up to now, while 1,633 loans, 466 million euros, have been granted to the Loan Fund, with the result that, as mentioned above, its budget has been exhausted.
In light of this development, both the president of the ETA Giorgos Zavvos and the managing director Irini Papakyrillou left open the possibility that additional resources will be transferred to the Loan Fund in the next period, as the demand for working capital from small and medium enterprises is huge.
Mr. Papathanasis also focused on this issue, highlighting the contribution of the ETA to strengthening the liquidity of small and medium-sized enterprises and especially very small enterprises.
Where did the loans go?
In particular, he stated that 84% of the loans from the Loan Fund were directed to companies with fewer than 50 employees and 81% to companies with a turnover of less than 10 million euros, while from the loans of the Guarantee Fund, 90.1% it was directed to companies with less than 50 employees and 91.5% to companies with a turnover of less than 10 million euros.
The contribution of the Hellenic Development Investment Bank (EATE), which manages funds amounting to 2.1 billion euros and contributes decisively to the development of the Greek venture capital ecosystem for more investments in Greek companies with
innovation characteristics and scaling prospects and application of ESG criteria. At the moment, the investment schemes of venture capital and private equity amount to 28, while the investments – holdings already number 114 companies, which have received funds of 459 million euros.
According to EATE president Harry Lambropoulos and managing director Antigoni Lymberopoulou, by the end of the year, EATE’s venture capital and private equity investment schemes will
increase to 35 and the total funds under management to 2.35 billion euros, of which the total commitments on the part of EATE are determined at 1.1 billion euros.
With reference to the program of the Just Developmental Transition, amounting to 1.6 billion euros – the first similar program approved in the EU -, Mr. Papathanasis underlined that the invitations already amount to 44.41% of the total budget, with aiming for this percentage to reach 70% by the end of 2025.
As specified by the commander of the Special Service for Just Development Transition, Pelopidas Kalliris, in the framework of the De Minimis invitations for small and very small, new and existing businesses, 840 applications have been submitted, with a budget of 50.6 million euros and the coverage of the available public expenditure amounts to 101%.
In the calls of the General Exemption Regulation for SMEs and large, new and existing companies, the corresponding applications are already 136, with a budget of 392.58 million euros and 140% overcovering of
public expenditure.
Finally, with regard to Public-Private Partnerships, the director of the PPP unit, Nikos Sergis, stated, among other things, that projects such as the student residences at the Democritus University and the Universities of Crete and Thessaly, school infrastructures in the Region are underway of Central Macedonia, irrigation projects and waste management projects, the road axes Thessaloniki – Edessa and Drama – Amphipolis, while the call for expressions of interest for the new “Andreas Lentakis” Government Park has already been published