The promotional bank LfA of the Free State is intended to help Bavaria’s medium-sized companies to become less dependent on fossil fuels. In May, the bank will issue a “regenerative energy loan” to promote investments in electricity, heating and cooling generation based on renewable energies. The bank announced this on Wednesday.
The main business of the development bank is the granting of low-interest loans to companies. The LfA is also to play a limited role in the use of hydrogen as an energy source, as favored by Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger. “In my opinion, this will be the biggest transformation process since industrialization,” said the Free Voters boss about the change in energy supply.
Last year, the LfA awarded more than 3.2 billion euros in funding to almost 5,900 companies; In addition to loans, this includes, among other things, the assumption of risks. In total, that was over a billion euros less than in the first pandemic year 2020, in which the LfA was confronted with a great need for corona aid. “It’s gratifying for me that in 2021 we got out of the Corona crisis management again,” said Aiwanger. In 2021, the LfA paid out 488 million euros in corona aid. In 2020 it was 1.5 billion euros, said CEO Bernhard Schwab. Last year, the LfA paid out more money to promote business start-ups, namely 570 million euros.
Maximizing its own profits is not the task of the LfA. However, the development bank should not be in the red either. In 2021, there was an annual surplus of 20 million euros, five million less than in the previous year.