KfW IPEX cheers successful 2019 but warns of COVID-19 impact for 2020
New financing commitments by Germany's KfW IPEX-Bank hit a historical high at €22.1 billion last year - as the lender warned that the coronavirus means that 2020 figures will "fall short".
The main driving force behind the increase in the volume of lending to €69.1 billion - up from €66.6 billion in 2018 - was the above-average volume of export and project financing commitments in 2019.
In its original lending business, KfW IPEX-Bank provided new loans amounting to €18.6 billion - up from €17 billion in 2018. In particular, the new commitment volume of the ‘Power, Renewables and Water’ sector reached a strong €3.2 billion, a large proportion of which was related to projects associated with the energy transition, for example onshore and offshore wind farms and conventional low-emission energy projects, such as LNG-to-power facilities.
This was supplemented by new commitments of approximately €3.5 billion - an increase from 2018's figure of €0.7 billion - for bank refinancing under the CIRR ship and ERP export financing programmes.
On the year ahead, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Klaus Michalak, CEO of KfW IPEX-Bank, said: "The coronavirus crisis is already having a significant impact on international trade and large investments worldwide. In light of this situation, our new business in 2020 will fall short of the good financial year in 2019, even though it is not yet possible to make any reliable forecasts."
