Over 7,300 of them were granted last year and amounted to EUR323 million.
The fund helped 9,930 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) between 2010 and 2012, Elena Kleninger, member of the fund’s managing board, said Tuesday at the conference Mediafax talks about SMEs.
Some 40% of counter-guarantees were granted to firms in the trade sector and 24.8% to firms active in the manufacturing sector.
The fund’s purpose is to help start-up businesses and profitable SMEs with temporary cash problems.
The maximum value of a counter-guarantee is EUR1.2 million.
A non-performing loan analysis shows that the riskiest firms in the fund’s portfolio are those active in the services sector (with a NPL rate of 7% both in September 2012 and in December 2012). They are followed by firms in the manufacturing sector, with a NPL rate of 5.3% in December 2012.