State aid and SMEs
Dr. Katarína Chandogová
DG for Competition, European Commission
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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Risk finance aid
If SMEs do not fulfil the eligibility conditions:
 aid limited to 200.000 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
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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
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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
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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
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• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
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