Banks are already making financing available to SMEs under the guarantees provided by the Official Credit Institute (ICO), approved by Royal Decree-Law 6/2022 of 29 March to alleviate the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine for Spanish companies. This line of credit can be very useful for companies whose business has been directly affected by the war. As the Ministry of Finance announced, it’s intended to “cover liquidity needs caused by the temporary increase in energy and fuel costs” resulting from the war.
The deadline for applying for these guarantees is 1 December 2022. At Kaizen Consulting, we are specialists in advising on this type of aid. We can help you to formalise the application and manage the ICO guarantees. We recommend you contact our specialised team so that we can analyse your case and advise you on your particular financing options.
These ICO guarantees are worth 10 billion euros in total. The aid is targeted at the self-employed and businesses in all economic sectors affected by the economic repercussions of the war in Ukraine with the sole exception of the financial and insurance sector. The amount may be used for investments, working capital requirements, and new financing operations granted by banks, but under no circumstances can it be used for refinancing or debt restructuring.
These new guarantees don’t take into account whether the company has already taken out other ICO loans. Loans can be taken out for up to 10 years, including grace periods for repayment, if necessary. After approval, it wasn’t made available to businesses for months, but it’s now being offered by the banks that signed up to it.
This financing is guaranteed by the State (70% or 80%), so the interest rates are very low depending on the amount requested. The amount guaranteed by the State is generally up to €400,000, which means that the self-employed and SMEs (as long as they do not have a stake and aren’t more than 25% owned by other companies) can apply for loans of up to €500,000. It’s worth mentioning that the amount may be higher, provided that the higher one of these two cases is not exceeded:
- 15% of the average annual turnover of the last 3 completed fiscal years
- 50% of the energy costs for the last 12 months since applying for financing
