AMSTERDAM: A new institution created by a group of Dutch pension funds with government backing said it has gathered 800 million euros ($870 million) for lending to small and medium businesses in the Netherlands.
The Nederlandse Investeringinstelling (NLII) was founded last year to help address the lack of available credit for small and medium enterprises in the Netherlands, despite record low funding rates for the country’s banks via the European Central Bank.
The country’s major pension funds — including names such as ABP, PGGM and others which collectively manage 1.4 trillion euros in assets — agreed to fund the NLII, following arguments by politicians that it made sense for them to increase investment in the country where their members live.
The NLII said on Wednesday it has set up a Business Lending Fund with 500 million euros in assets, expanding to 1 billion euros. The fund, run by Robeco, will participate in bank loans to healthy companies in sectors where banks cannot accept further exposure.
And the NLII said it had launched a Subordinated Loan Fund with 300 million euros in assets, for lending to otherwise healthy business that are too heavily indebted to qualify for further bank credit.
The fund will be run by Aegon Asset Management, and loans it issues will receive a state guarantee on 50 percent of loan principle.
