State aid and SMEs. Dr. Katarína Chandogová DG for Competition, European Commission

Transcription

1 State aid and SMEs Dr. Katarína Chandogová DG for Competition, European Commission 1

2 Aid to SMEs Investment aid to SMEs (Art. 17 GBER) Aid for consultancy in favour of SMEs (Art. 18 GBER) Aid to SMEs for participation in fairs (Art. 19 GBER) Aid for cooperation costs incurred by SMEs participating in European Territorial Cooperation projects (Art. 20 GBER) 2

3 Aid for access to finance for SMEs Risk finance aid (Art. 21 GBER) Aid for start-ups (Art. 22 GBER) Aid for alternative trading platforms specialized in SMEs (Art. 23 GBER) AIid for scounting costs (Art. 24 GBER) 3

4 Main GBER conditions - Eligible activities covered by GBER (see definitions Art. 2 GBER) - Beneficiary is an SME, if SME aid (see definition in Annex I GBER) - Notification threshold respected (Art. 4 GBER) - Aid is granted in form of transparent instrument (Art. 5 GBER) - Formal incentive effect fulfilled (Art. 6 GBER) - Eligible costs - Cummulation and Transparency (Art. 8 and 9 GBER) 4

5 Investment aid to SMEs Beneficiary SME Eligible activities: construction/extension of new establishment, diversification of output of establishment into new additional products, fundamental change in production process of existing establishment or acquisition of assets under special conditions Eligible costs: investment cost or wage costs of 2 years or combination Aid intensity: 20 % (small enterprise), 10 % (medium-sized enterprise) Notification treshold: EUR 7.5 million per undertaking and project 5

6 Aid for consultancy in favour of SMEs Beneficiary SME Eligible costs: cost of consultancy by external consultant (presumption-market price, no-overpricing and no-underpricing if inhouse transaction (the aid amount is equal to price of a service) uniqueness no routine operating costs such as advertising, regular legal services Aid intensity: 50 % of eligible costs Notification treshold: EUR 2 million per undertaking and project 6

7 Aid for SMEs for participation in fairs Beneficiary SME Eligible costs: costs for renting, setting-up and running the stand for participation of undertaking in fair/exhibition Aid intensity: 50 % of eligible costs Notification treshold: EUR 2 million per undertaking and year 7

8 Aid for cooperation incurred by SMEs in ETC projects Beneficiary SME participating in ETC Eligible costs: costs for organisational cooperation, incl. staff and offices linked to the projects, cost for advisory and support services by external providers, travel expenses and investment costs related to the project incl. depreciations of equipment not eligible: usual operating costs /tax consultancy, regular legal services, routine advertising Aid intensity: 50 % of eligible costs Notification treshold: EUR 2 million per undertaking and project 8

9 Risk finance aid Aid at three levels: financial intermediaries, investors, SMEs Eligible undertakings: unlisted undertaking at the time of initial investment and i) not yet operating in any market or ii) have been operating for less than 7 years since first commercial sale or iii) extremely capital intensive investments (50 per cent of average annual turnover in the preceeding 5 years Follow-on investment in eligible undertakings incl.undertaking operating more than 7 years on a market if i) total amount of risk finance does not exceed EUR 15 Mio. per eligible undertaking under any risk finance measure ii) investment was forseen in the original business plan iii) undertaking is not linked with another undertaking 9

10 Risk finance aid Replacement investment in equity and quasi-equity, if combined with new capital of at least 50 per cent of each investment round max.30 per cent of capital aggregate contribution/uncalled committed capital to financial intermediaries can be used for liquidity management Maximum amount of risk finance EUR 15 Mio. per eligible undertaking Minimum participation ratio of private independent investors (of direct or indirect aggregate investments): 10/40/60 per cent depending on the type of eligible undertakings; special rules for mixed eligible undertakings 10

11 Risk finance aid RF must be implemented via one or more financial intermediaries (expeption for tax incentives to investors) financial intermediaries and investors must be selected via open, transparent and non-discriminatory call (EU and national rules apply); part of the call is risk-reward sharing mechanism (preference for assymetric profit sharing) assymetric loss-sharing, first loss capped at 25 per cent of total investment guarantee rate shall be limited to 80 per cent and total losses assumed by MS up to 25 percent of underlying portfolio (covering expected losses for free; unexpected losses market-conform) 11

12 Risk finance aid RF investment decisions must be profit-driven Financial intermediaries must be commercially managed Special conditions for guarantees and loans to SMEs: i) Financial intermediary mus demonstrate that the financial intermediaries have changed their behaviour by providing higher volume of financing, riskier portfolio, lower collaterals requirements, lower guarantee premiums, or lower interes rates than in the absence of the measure, ii) GGE does not apply but the total nominal loan amount is important for calculation of the maximum investments, iii) guarantee in nominal amount of underlying loan and limited to 80 per cent 12

13 Risk finance aid If SMEs do not fulfil the eligibility conditions: aid limited to EUR in three years at the level of the SMEs /deminimis Regulation max. EUR 15 Mio. per undertaking minimum participation rate of private independent investors of 60 per cent financial intermediary and eligible undertakings selected in open, transparent and non-discriminatory call downside protection by asymmetric risk-sharing limited to 25 per cent of total investment profit-driven investment decision and commercial management 13

14 Aid for start-ups Applies only for schemes Eligible undertakings: young unlisted small companies (see special condition for age) Instruments: loans, guarantees, grants, equity and quasi-equity, interest-rate and guarantee-premium subsidies or mixed of them specific tresholds for each instruments this threshold can be doubled for small and innovative enterprise 14

15 Aid to alternative trading platforms specialised in SMEs platform operator is a small enterprise-start up aid tax incentives to independent private investors as natural persons investing through alternative trading platforms into undertakingeligible undertakings as defined in Art. 21 GBER 15

16 Aid for scouting costs Eligible costs: costs for initial screening and formal due diligence undertaken by manager of financial intermediary or investors linked to eligible undertaking defined in Art. 21 (risk finance) and Art.22 (start-ups) Aid intensity: 50 % of eligible costs 16

17 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! 17