LfA fall balance sheet: promotional loans increase by almost 50 percent

Munich — The posi­tive trend in funding commit­ments conti­nues: In the first nine months of the current year, LfA Förder­bank Bayern has supported the Bava­rian economy with loans tota­ling around EUR 1.6 billion. Almost EUR 1.45 billion of this flowed into LfA’s core busi­ness with program-linked deve­lo­p­ment loans. Compared to the same period last year, this is an increase of almost 50 percent. Around 100,000 jobs were secu­red with the help of the funding. 

Demand for the deve­lo­p­ment loan programs increased noti­ce­ably in all of the LfA’s deve­lo­p­ment areas. The start-up and growth loan (GuW) had the highest total funding volume. In the LfA’s stan­dard program for finan­cing start-ups, company succes­si­ons and the entire finan­cing requi­re­ments of SMEs and free­lan­cers, loans total­ling over EUR 670 million were approved. 

Compared to the previous year, demand for inno­va­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion funding more than doubled to a total of around 365 million euros. Both the former Inno­va­tion Loan 4.0 and its succes­sor products, the Inno­va­tion Loan and Digi­tiza­tion Loan, which were intro­du­ced in July, were very well recei­ved. With three funding levels each, the LfA now offers even better finan­cing condi­ti­ons for compa­nies and free­lan­cers in Bava­ria. The follo­wing prin­ci­ple applies: the more deman­ding the project, the more favorable the inte­rest rates. 

There was also a strong over­all increase in demand for promo­tio­nal offers for energy and climate protec­tion. For the Rege­ne­ra­tive Energy Loan alone — LfA’s special offer for invest­ments in the gene­ra­tion of elec­tri­city and hydro­gen based on rene­wa­ble ener­gies as well as corre­spon­ding storage systems — the funding volume in the first three quar­ters of the year was over EUR 85 million. The reasons for this multi­pli­ca­tion in demand are, on the one hand, the product impro­ve­ments made in spring and, on the other, the lower EU refe­rence inte­rest rate since July. As of Octo­ber 30, there will be a further impro­ve­ment in the energy loan family: the heating energy loan — for the pipe­­line-based expan­sion of the heating and cooling supply — will be expan­ded to include a vari­ant in which loans of up to 50 million euros can be applied for in future. 

Bava­ria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs and Chair­man of the LfA Board of Direc­tors Hubert Aiwan­ger: “The contin­ued strong upward trend in loan commit­ments from LfA Förder­bank Bayern is a good sign. Bava­ria’s compa­nies are taking a bold approach to their future and inves­t­ing in future-orien­­ted topics such as inno­va­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and rene­wa­ble ener­gies despite all the uncer­tain­ties. The expan­ded funding oppor­tu­ni­ties are neces­sary and helpful. They come at the right time and provide new impe­tus, espe­ci­ally in diffi­cult econo­mic times.”

Dr Bern­hard Schwab, CEO of LfA, explains: “The increase in our lending for inno­va­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and rene­wa­ble ener­gies under­pins the strong commit­ment of compa­nies to invest in inno­va­tion and a sustainable future. The high demand for finan­cing in the field of rene­wa­ble ener­gies, which signi­fi­cantly support the path to energy- and cost-effi­ci­ent busi­ness, is parti­cu­larly plea­sing. LfA Förder­bank Bayern is once again proving its rele­vance for the Bava­rian economy.”

LfA has been the state-owned specia­list bank for the promo­tion of SMEs in Bava­ria since 1951. As a rule, the deve­lo­p­ment loans are applied for at the compa­nies’ prin­ci­pal banks and are gran­ted through them. In order to streng­then Bava­ria as a busi­ness loca­tion, the LfA also supports infra­struc­ture projects. LfA funding advice: 089 / 21 24 — 10 00 — www.lfa.de