Things
The Minibond Guarantee Fund (FGM) is the financial instrument supported by the ERDF aimed at providing the guarantee to support the operation ("Basket Bond Lazio"), dedicated to promoting and supporting access to alternative financial sources to bank credit by of SMEs operating in Lazio.
Who is it aimed at?
SMEs in possession of the formal eligibility requirements indicated below are formally eligible for the FGM guarantee, and therefore can be initiated into the procedural process necessary for participation in the operation: • they must fall within the dimensional parameters of a small or medium enterprise (" PMI”), as defined in Annex 1 to EU Regulation 651/2014, the period of validity of which was extended to 31 December 2023 by Reg. (EU) 2020/972; micro-enterprises are excluded; the size requirement must be maintained until admission to the portfolio with relative granting of the guarantee based on the cash collateral made available by the FGM; – they must have an operational headquarters in Lazio, at the latest by the date of admission to the portfolio (granting of the guarantee); the entrepreneurial activity receiving the financial resources collected through the issuance of the minibond must be carried out in this location and the investments financed by these resources must be located there; - they must have a rating and must possess the other requirements indicated in the invitation (e.g. legal form, financial ratios, general eligibility requirements).
What does it predict
The advantages for SMEs that access this new financing channel, however reserved for companies with good creditworthiness, are not purely financial: – to issue bonds, companies must obtain a rating and therefore – indirectly – learn to consider the financial statements are the true reflection of the state of health of the company; - to interface with professional investors, companies must acquire advanced skills in finance, an area in which SMEs often do not have internal safeguards as valid and consolidated as in the production or commercial fields ; – the issuance of a minibond is an event that usually receives media coverage and contributes to improving the company's image and the reliability perceived by the market
