Project finance

There is a staggering $2.5 trillion global trade finance gap that mainly affects SMEs in emerging countries, limiting their ability to access new business opportunities. Helping businesses to bridge this finance gap, supply chain fintech Twinco Capital is today announcing it has secured an additional €50 million facility with BBVA Spark to accelerate growth.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila concluded the sixth edition of BBVA Open Summit, the annual entrepreneurship event, recalling the bank’s commitment to innovation. “BBVA has 600 million committed to various venture capital funds. The recent focus of these investments is on driving decarbonization and the development of innovative entrepreneurship in our main markets. Both areas make strategic sense for BBVA, to incorporate new knowledge into the Group and to support the companies we want to be our customers,” said Torres Vila at the closing of the event.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and BBVA are set to make it easier for startups with innovative and sustainable value propositions to get access to financing. The two institutions have concluded an agreement under the InvestEU guarantee programme whereby the EIF will grant a €200 million guarantee to enable BBVA Spark (BBVA’s specialised startup initiative) to strengthen its support for startups, helping them with their expansion plans.

The EIB Group, comprising the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF), has signed a new asset-backed securities (ABS) purchase agreement with BBVA. The deal encompasses several transactions through a single securitization, with a structure designed to achieve optimal efficiency. In addition, the EIB Group signed an agreement with BBVA for a €54 million synthetic securitization under the European Guarantee Fund (EGF) program.

Garanti BBVA has funded Tosyalı Roof solar power plant project with a loan of 400 million Turkish lira. The deal demonstrates the bank's ongoing support for sustainable development.

The bank was also recognized as the best investment bank of the year. Ebru Dildar Edin, Executive Vice President of Garanti BBVA, reaffirmed the bank's commitment to “continue to maintain its sustainability and investment objectives and to set more ambitious goals each year.”

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and BBVA have further strengthened their relationship and signed an agreement to support large Spanish companies and mid-caps affected by the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. To this end, the EIB will grant a guarantee of up to €400 million to BBVA, enabling the Spanish bank to mobilise more than €1.015 billion in the real economy via loans.

CW Enerji, Europe's largest solar power system manufacturer, has signed an agreement with Garanti BBVA Leasing, one of the industry's leading leasing companies. As part of the framework agreement, tailored financial support will be offered to clients for the installation of solar-powered electric energy stations.

BBVA keeps making strides in its sustainability commitment. The bank, in coordination with Caixabank, has signed the first ever sustainable loan with a pharmaceutical company in Spain. The scheme is divided into three tranches: a long-term loan, a revolving line and a credit line for acquisitions, subject to a six-year maturity term.

Acceleration programmes, like Open Innovation from BBVA helping startups from the fintech ecosystem, are an opportunity to offer tailored support that helps entrepreneurs to refine their model, boost their growth and access investment. In the case of the BBVA programme, the project is bringing to a close nine months of workshops, mentoring and support. For the bank and entrepreneurs, the initiative has provided an opportunity to learn together.

BBVA has closed with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), one of the leading global investors in renewable energy, a green loan, long-term project financing credit facility for the investment in the Monegros portfolio of 12 onshore wind farms in Aragon, Spain. BBVA has had all significant roles, including sole bookrunner, structuring bank and green loan coordinator in this transaction amounting to a total of EUR 380m. Apart from BBVA, the final club deal group was composed of five other European banks.

Garanti BBVA shared its project financing expertise at the 8th annual PPP in Turkey Forum. The two-day conference, held in Ankara, addressed the complexities around public-private partnerships (PPP).

Alberto Cano (Oviedo, 1974) is Head of SMEs at BBVA Spain. Previously, he has been Area Manager of Commercial Banking in different regions of Spain and has undertaken various business-related positions within management of the Eastern Territory.

SMEs have always been a priority line of business for BBVA. The department Alberto leads is key in supporting this sector, which increasingly demands simple and agile processes that facilitate business management and help companies make better decisions to grow.

BBVA’s venture capital business Propel Venture Partners has led the funding round into one of the three finalists of the bank’s Open Talent competition, just a year after the business scooped a top award.

Garanti Bank has reached an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to provide Turkish female entrepreneurs TRY 390 million in financing. Women with small and mid-sized businesses can apply for TRY 50,000 to TRY 500,000 in three year loans at special interest rates.

A European Commission report warns that across the EU the technological divide between large cities and the rest of the region is growing.

The European Investment Bank Group and BBVA have signed a synthetic securitization to finance investment projects of Spanish SMEs. The agreement will enable the provision of €600 million.

Investor angels, or business angels, are people who invest their money in the initial phase of startups, in exchange for a participation in capital. They also usually carry out the role of a mentor and offer their consent and experience to entrepreneurs.

Alternative finance keeps gaining traction in Europe and Spain is no exception. By volume of activity —and excluding the UK— Spain ranks fifth in the European Union for the fourth consecutive year in this segment, behind France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. In 2016, Spain’s alternative finance sector grew by 162%, to €131 million.

Sustainable Development is essential to achieving more peaceful and just societies and the United Nations counts on the private sector to help in this effort. The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) has contributed its experience in the finance sector to the report entitled “Business and SDG 16: contributing to peaceful, just and inclusive societies,” drawn up by the Sustainable Development Goals Fund and the University of Pennsylvania.

Argentina’s small and medium sized enterprises, despite being pummeled by taxes and struggling to access credit, managed to survive the collapse of consumption. Now, they are gearing up to capitalize on the improving economic outlook, thanks to the lending and tax measures that the government will roll out in short to encourage them to invest. Four our of every 10 companies say they intend to do so.

BBVA Compass National Mortgage Sales Manager Eduardo Castaneda has been in the mortgage business for over three decades, and can pour a vast amount of information on the subject at a moment’s notice.

Investors and entrepreneurs will once again come together at the South Summit in Madrid, an encounter that has been a proven success in previous years. BBVA will have a distinguished participation in the event.

The transition to a more sustainable economic and financial system is key to boost the union of capital markets in Europe and ensure competitiveness, job creation and stable economic growth maintained Antoni Ballabriga at the European Banking Summit 2017 organized today in Brussels by the European Banking Federation (EBF).

BBVA has acted as Green Loan Coordinator of a €176 million green loan granted to Sociedade Concesionaria Novo Hospital de Vigo S.A., the concessionaire responsible for non-hospital services at the instititution, which has been renamed Hospital Álvaro Cunqueiro. Servizo Galego de Saúde, Galicia’s healthcare service, awarded the 25-year construction and operation to the concessionaire, a consortium formed by Acciona, Grupo Puentes, Veolia España and Concesia.

BBVA has signed the first green loan in the project finance format with the Italian energy company Terna. The funding has been structured into a loan A for 56 million dollars awarded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and a loan B for 25 million dollars entirely subscribed by BBVA, which has also headed the green structuring of the funding and acted as the Green Loan Coordinator.

Funding is one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face when launching their own company. And getting it is not easy. But now, Trust·u, a new SME-oriented financing model, aims to help recently created companies overcome this hurdle by offering loans to startups that are able to convince relatives and friends to support them.

We have experienced the deepest global crisis since the Great Depression. Among the things that have changed - perhaps for good - is the way the financial sector now acts at  a global level to manage both credit and reputational risk. This has coincided with what amounts to a genuine explosion in technology, which has undoubtedly only just begun.

BBVA Momentum is not your typical business funding program, because it places a special emphasis on strategic mentoring, training and support. However, businesses enroll in the program for a number of reasons, including the possibility of being awarded a cash prize that will allow them increase their impact. For this reason, the new edition will continue providing access to investment, but with a different approach.