European Investment Bank: financing opportunities for the hospital sector
By Dr. Martin Schoelkopf
The European Investment Bank (EIB), backed by the EU Member States, recently presented its financing options for public projects in the ‘human capital’ sector. Apart from investments in the education sector, this also expressly includes healthcare and hospital financing, to cover modernisation of old and construction of new facilities, plus equipment requirements (such as laboratory equipment, medical scanners, etc.) and IT.
The EIB offers medium and long-term loans and equity financing. Individual loans are generally only granted for investment projects costing over 25 million euros, and usually only cover up to 50% of the estimated project costs. Smaller loans are provided within the framework of global loans via intermediary partner banks. Borrowers may be public, private non-profit or private undertakings. To date, in Germany, hospitals in the new states have particularly made use of the EIB’s financing facilities.
Due to its excellent rating, the EIB can raise long-term funds with very good terms and, as the bank has no gainful objective, the advantage can be passed on to borrowers. Additionally the bank can offer very long-term loans for healthcare, up to 30 years). The terms of these loans also may include redemption holidays.
Healthcare projects undergo an audit which, besides financial feasibility, particularly examines whether the corresponding investments will contribute to ‘cost-effective improvement of the population’s health ...’
EIB contacts for German and Austrian healthcare groups:
• Joachim Link, Director of Financing for Germany and Austria, EIB, 100 boulevard Konrad Adenauer, L-2950 Luxembourg, Tel: +352/4379-1
e-mail: j.link@eib.org
• Franz Josef Vetter, Head of EIB’s Berlin Office, Lennestr. 17, 10785 Berlin.
e-mail: f.vetter@eib.org
• Stephen Wright, Human Capital Department, EIB, 100 Boulevard Konrad Adenauer, L-2950 Luxembourg, Tel: +352/4379-8570, Fax: +352/4379-8827.
e-mail: wright@eib.org
This article was published on 04/30/2003