IMM INVEST ROMANIA is a government support program in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which allows SMEs to ensure liquidity for their current activities or for investments, through bank loans guaranteed up to 80% or 90% by FNGCIMM in the name and account of the Romanian state, through the Ministry of Public Finance.

Vista Bank is always close to its customers, so it has joined as a partner bank the IMM INVEST ROMANIA Program.

In addition to the state aid granted in the form of loan guarantees, the Program also includes grants that subsidize the bank interest and the risk and administration fees related to the guarantee granted.

• The state guarantees up to 90% of the value of the accessed loan(s);
• The interest is fully subsidized from the state budget for a period of 8 months from the loan granting date;
• The risk and administration commissions are fully subsidized from the state budget according to the Norms for the application of GEO 110/2017, approved with amendments and completions by Law 209/2018, with subsequent amendments and completions;
• Advantageous interest rates, with a calculation formula that will not be modified during the credit term;
• In addition to interest, you do not pay any additional bank commissions for the loan, except for the fees with the loan related non-bank operations (for example, notary fees, valuation and registration of guarantees, etc.);
• The early repayment fee is ZERO;
• The guarantee period is of maximum 72 months for investment loans and 36 months, with the possibility of extension for another 36 months, for working capital loans / lines of credit;;
• The maximum value of loans can be up to 5 million lei for working capital and 10 million lei for investments, without exceeding the total cumulated amount of 10 million lei;
• For investment loans, you may benefit from a grace period of up to 18 months, at the beginning of the lending period. For loans granted under the Agro IMM Invest sub-program, the grace period is of maximum 24 months.

You may find the maximum credit value and guarantee percentages in the table below:

Depending on the type of the loan accessed, the interest charged is as follows:

• Loans for investments: 3-month ROBOR + 2.0% / year margin
• Loans / credit lines for working capital: 3-month ROBOR + 2.5% / year margin

Throughout the lending period, the bank will not change the above interest rates.

The interest is subsidized 100% from the state budget for a period of 8 months from the loan granting date. After the grant period, your company will pay the interest until the reimbursement of the financing.

Your company is eligible if it falls into the category of SME according to Law 346/2004 and cumulatively meets the following criteria:

• is not in difficulty (according to the Note below);
• is not in dispute, as a defendant, with the Ministry of Public Finance and / or the partner credit institution;
• do not appear with overdue loans, including for leasing type financing, in the last 6 months prior to December 31, 2019 or if they register arrears, they are classified in categories A, B, C in the database of the Credit Risk Center (CRC)
• is not prohibited from issuing checks as at December 31, 2019 and does not appear with major incidents with promissory notes in the last 6 months prior to December 31, 2019 at the Payment Incidents Center (CIP);
• the insolvency procedure was not opened against it, based on the applicable laws;
• presents to the credit institution collateral guarantees which, in the case of investment loans, together with the state guarantee and the real estate and / or movable legal mortgage on the assets financed from the credit, cover in proportion of at least 100% the value of the financing.
• are eligible according to the internal regulations of the bank;
• does not register outstanding fiscal obligations and other budgetary debts; if it registers such outstanding obligations, the beneficiary undertakes to fulfill them from the working capital credit /credit line granted under the Program;
• submit a written document by which it undertakes not to dismiss the existing staff as at 04.04.2020 until December 31, 2020. The company may organize the work schedule of employees depending on the evolution of its current activity;
• no decisions of a state aid debt recovery have been issued against them or if such decisions have been issued, those have been executed, in accordance with the legal provisions in force;
• did not request other types of state aid for the same eligible costs.

Note:

Enterprise in difficulty within the meaning of points 20 and 24 of the Commission Communication - Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring non-financial enterprises in difficulty 2014/C 249/01, published in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, no. 249 of July 31, 2014:

• limited liability companies and joint stock companies: when it has not lost more than half of its share capital in the last two years and more than a quarter of this capital in the last 12 months, as shown in the last two annual financial statements of society. Exceptions are start-ups that do not have any annual financial statement submitted;
• companies in which at least some of the partners are held indefinitely for the company's debts: when it has not lost more than half of its own capital in the last two years and more than a quarter of this capital in the last 12 months, as it results from the last two annual financial statements of the company, respectively the company in collective name, the limited partnership, the partnership limited by shares. Exceptions are start-ups that do not have any annual financial statement submitted;
• SMEs that are not in any of the following situations: insolvency proceedings, foreclosure proceedings initiated by tax authorities and/or other creditors, operational closure, dissolution, liquidation, special administration or composition agreement and does not meet the criteria of national law to be subject to insolvency proceedings at the request of creditors, according to the their affidavit, completed and signed by the beneficiary of the financing.

Enterprise in difficulty within the meaning of Article 2 (18) of the Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of June 17, 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market pursuant to Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, as amended and supplemented by Regulation (EU) no. 1084 / 2017, on December 31, 2019, but which faced difficulties or entered into difficulty later, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, means an enterprise that is in at least one of the following situations:

• In the case of a limited liability company (other than an SME that has existed for at least three years or, for the purposes of eligibility for risk finance aid, an SME being at 7 years after its first commercial sale that qualifies for investments for risk financing following a due diligence process carried out by a selected financial intermediary), when more than half of its subscribed share capital has disappeared due to accumulated losses. This situation occurs when the deduction of accumulated losses from reserves (and from all other items generally considered part of the company's own funds) leads to a negative result that exceeds half of the subscribed share capital. For the purposes of this provision, 'limited liability company' refers in particular to the types of companies listed in Annex I to Directive 2013/34 / EU (37) and 'share capital' includes, where appropriate, any additional capital.
• In the case of a company in which at least some of the partners have unlimited liability for the company's debts (other than an SME that has existed for at least three years or, for the purposes of eligibility for risk finance aid, an SME being at 7 years after its first commercial sale that qualifies for investments for risk financing following a due diligence process carried out by a selected financial intermediary), when more than half of its equity as shown in the company's accounts has disappeared due to accumulated losses. For the purposes of this provision, ‘a company in which at least some of the partners have unlimited liability for the company's debts’ refers in particular to those types of companies listed in Annex II to Directive 2013/34 / EU.
• When the company is the subject of collective insolvency proceedings or meets the criteria laid down in national law for the opening of collective insolvency proceedings at the request of its creditors.
• When the company has received rescue aid and has not yet repaid the loan or it didn’t terminate the guarantee or if the company received restructuring aid and is still subject to a restructuring plan.
• In the case of a company which is not an SME, when, in the last two years:
  • the debt / equity ratio of the enterprise is higher than 7.5;
  • the capacity to cover the interest calculated based on EBITDA is below 1.0.

The guarantees presented by the beneficiaries must cover at least 100% of the financing value and are in favor of the Romanian state and the bank, in proportion to the risk assumed by each of the parties.

• The first step is to register online in the application available on the website www.imminvest.ro and choose Vista Bank as a partner bank. Fill in the identification data, the SME declaration available on the site - which you sign and upload in the application in PDF format (no electronic signature is required), as well as your option for the requested type of credit.
• The application will automatically generate your registration number as well as a registration confirmation message. After verifying the registered data and information, FNGCIMM will issue the principle agreement on eligibility under the Program.
• After confirming your eligibility, FNGCIMM will make available to the bank, in electronic format, the registered data and documents and the agreement in principle regarding your eligibility.
• Vista Bank will analyze the application according to the bank's internal procedures and will take the decision to grant / reject the loan, after which it will send to FNGCIMM the request regarding the granting of the state guarantee.
• After the receiving the final response from FNGCIMM regarding the granting / rejection of the guarantee, we will inform you about the decision taken and, in case of approval, what are the steps for signing the guarantee contract and the financing agreement.

On the IMM INVEST platform, you can register at any time. The online registration takes place in a continuous session, until the ceiling and allocated budget to the Program are exhausted.

Useful Links:

• For more details regarding the Program: www.fngcimm.ro/imm-invest
• To register online to the Program: www.imminvest.ro