Following the ETA’s Call for Expressions of Interest to Financial Institutions for their participation in the “TEPIX III Loan Fund” (hereinafter the “Fund”), ABBank’s participation in the Fund was approved. The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union and the Greek State.

Following the further development of the Bank’s operations, ABBank, with a large part of its non-shipping portfolio falling within the invitation criteria, intends through its participation in the Fund to further contribute to the support and development of its existing and new customers, so that them to implement investments that enhance extroversion and help increase productivity and the size of businesses while at the same time promoting social well-being through increasing employment and reducing their environmental footprint.

The goal of the Fund is to improve access to financing for all small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to support and develop their business activity and cover a wide range of their financing needs. Furthermore, the program aims to strengthen the productive operation of the enterprises, to improve the processes and the products & services produced and, by extension, to improve their competitiveness and their position in the international markets.

The Fund’s budget amounts to the total amount of two hundred million Euros (€200,000,000) and comes from the NSRF 2021 – 2027 through the “Competitiveness” Program, with the co-financing of the European Union. Taking into account the participation in the Credit Institutions Fund by 60% in each grant, a total loan portfolio of approximately €450,000,000 is formed.

The Fund concerns eligible small and medium-sized enterprises that have an establishment and operate legally in Greece, based on a list of CPAs posted on the ETA website. The Fund provides investment loans and special purpose working capital loans, which are co-financed by the Fund (interest-free, by 40%) and by the respective participating credit institution (interest-free, by 60%). Additionally, the Fund may subsidize part of the interest rate (3%) applied by the participating credit institution for the first two (2) years of the loan. The amount of the loans can go up to 1.5 million euros when it comes to investment loans through the De Minimis aid scheme, 8 million euros when it comes to investment loans through the GAS aid scheme and up to 500,000 euros for special working capital loans purpose. Investment loans will have a grace period of up to 24 months and will have a duration of 5 to 12 years, while for working capital loans the duration will be from 2 to 5 years with a grace period of up to 12 months.

Beneficiary companies should, first of all, fall under the European definition of small and medium-sized enterprises and be tax and insurance aware. In addition to the usual entry requirements, first-time applicants must have completed the self-assessment process for the ESG Criteria in the EBA’s ESG Tracker, and submitted to the respective participating credit institution when submitting the funding application, the ESG Tracker Performance .