Portugal’s development bank BPF to launch 4 new instruments for companies

Portugal’s development bank, Banco Português de Fomento, is to launch four new financial instruments to support companies.

And to boost investment, BPF has sent 125,000 pre-approved guarantees worth €24Bn to micro and small companies.

As for large companies, it has promised a faster green light for funding projects using EU recovery and resilience funds giving them a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer within seven days instead of 49.

This is according to its new boss Gonçalo Regalado who has been given a number of challenges to meet by the Minister of the Economy, Pedro Reis.

In an interview with the business daily Negócios, Gonçalo Regalado said BFP will offer financial instruments to Portuguese companies in five groups of financing and investment so that a balance of €3.5Bn will have a multiplying effect.

That amount of investment represents around 1% of Portugal’s GDP. It will give financial guarantees through mutual guarantee companies to these companies, particularly Micro and SMEs so that they can invest.

It will give these companies secure access to the export market so that these companies can export more and better, as well as doing so through real estate investment funds so that they can invest more in their infrastructures.

BPF currently works with around 25,000 companies and plans to reach 100,000 companies within three years, and aims to deliver more investment and financing instruments with an ambition to exceed the €10Bn of assets that the BPF currently has under management.

In order to do this, the bank has a package of over €15Bn in guarantees available. “The bank has to be bigger, and above all, better. We have to tell companies that we’re here for them”, said the new BPF president.