Investment RE-C05-i04

The Azores Autonomous Region considers the creation of financial instruments to capitalise regional companies that were hit by the effects of the health crisis to be important, resulting in an immediate injection of liquidity into Azorean companies to support the modernisation of their activities or changes to their productive structure, and injecting liquidity into companies that show high growth or transformation capacity, with a commitment to new business areas.

The instrument will be designed and made available by the Banco Português de Fomento and will be open to end beneficiaries through protocols established with financial intermediaries, similar to the Covid-19 funding procedures. Within the scope of this participation, the financial intermediaries will be subject to compliance with the participation conditions and will be duly remunerated under the terms of the instrument to be designed by the Banco de Fomento, typically in the form of a pre-defined interest rate according to the amount, type of beneficiary and/or maturity of the investment. Once this instrument is allocated, initially in the form of a financial instrument with risk characteristics similar to those of equity, an eventual partial conversion into a non-refundable subsidy will be contracted according to the evolution of characteristics that prove the merit and economic viability of the beneficiary entity. Once these objectives have been met, the instrument will be partially converted into a non-reimbursable subsidy, reducing the beneficiary company’s amortisation requirements. Accordingly, this investment anticipates a component for the creation of capitalisation financial instruments and access to financing for non-financial companies, along with the eventual establishment of public guarantees through increased participation in the capital of Banco Português de Fomento.