SIMEST Equity Loans

We acquire minority interests in Italian businesses and foreign subsidiaries for international expansion projects. We do this with own resources, and for foreign initiatives, with Venture Capital Fund resources.

We support your international investments in the long term, as a minority institutional partner. We can do this by acquiring interests in foreign subsidiaries and in Italian firms, on condition that the latter use the resources to develop production investments in innovation and research for a better positioning on international markets.

For direct international investments only, SIMEST’s direct involvement can also be flanked by the Venture Capital Fund, a public instrument offering excellent promotional conditions, managed by SIMEST based on an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

All businesses making production, commercial or technological innovation investments under an international development programme.

For internationalisation projects, SIMEST will acquire a quota interest in the foreign subsidiary or in the Italian business.

Together with SIMEST, businesses can benefit from the additional participation of the Venture Capital Fund, in the case of direct foreign investments, with a remuneration equal to the ECB rate + a spread commensurate with the size of the business.

The overall interest of SIMEST + the Venture Capital Fund may be up to 49% of the foreign company’s capital and may not exceed that of the Italian promoter company.

For investments in non-EU countries, businesses can also benefit from an interest rate subsidy, which will have a positive impact on the cost of any loan requested by the proposer company from a third-party bank to fund its quota interest held in the foreign capital.

Duration of the equity investment: up to 8 years.