Bulgarian Development Bank could extend COVID-19 help to larger companies

Bulgaria's economy ministry has suggested to the government to include bigger companies in the loan guarantee scheme of the country's development bank for liquidity support to SMEs affected by the coronavirus crisis.

The extended version of the support programme by the Bulgarian Development Bank would benefit bigger companies as well, with personnel of over 250, annual turnover exceeding BGL97.5 million ($58.9 million), and/or asset value higher than BGL84 million.

The proposed changes to the programme also include increasing the maximum amount of a loan to BGL1 million from BGL300,000 for SMEs, while bigger companies could have guarantees for loans of up to BGL2 million.

The economy ministry also proposed the guarantee to be increased to 50% of the loan value from 30% and the application deadline to be extended by six months, until 20 June, 2021.

Over the last two months, some 600 companies have benefited from loans with a total value of over BGL80 million under the programme.