The Official Credit Institute (ICO) is a public bank, attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of the Spanish Government, which offers different lines of aid aid for the internationalisation of the country's companies.
In the current situation, still limping from the crisis caused by the COVID-19, knowing which are the ICO's aids is an information that you cannot miss. In this case, we will talk about its plan to support companies that want to internationalise their production.
The ICO offers different lines of aid for the internationalisation of companies. The requirements change depending on the business profile, so it will be interesting to know them in order to compare the different options.
The Spanish business fabric is diverse and so is its level of diversification. For example, in some cases it will be essential to have a head office in Spain, while in others it will be sufficient to have only a certain percentage of capital.
The ICO offers three main lines of aid for the internationalisation of industry:
ICO International can be accessed by both companies and the self-employed. The concession formula may be a direct loan or a line of credit.
The purpose of this aid is twofold and it is important to be aware of this. Firstly, it can be used to inject investment or liquidity, as long as it is for activities outside Spain (a maximum of 12.5 million euros. The second possibility is export, for which you will get a maximum of 25 million euros in direct loans or credit.
The application for this type of aid must be made directly to the credit institutions. In order to do so, it is essential to present a firm and well-reasoned project.
Although its name is very similar to the previous type of concession, don't confuse the two! The ICO International Channel is designed for companies of a certain size whose main requirement is to have at least 30% Spanish capital.
There are two types of concession. On the one hand, to obtain money for investment and liquidity needs. The other possibility is to secure long-term export projects in the form of a credit or loan.
The application process, in both cases, is made to the financial institution based abroad that collaborates with the ICO. It should be borne in mind that most of the large Spanish banks have subsidiaries abroad.
Finally, the ICO Exportadores line is very useful for companies that need an advance for their invoices or collections. In this case, the main requirement is that they must be domiciled in Spain.
The maximum amount that can be obtained by each company is 12.5 million euros per year. This can be obtained by balance or by volume of operations, depending on the circumstances. As an extraordinary financing element, it is of interest.
The interest rates will vary depending on the case and the application will also have to be made to the financial institution.
On many occasions, internationalising sales means expanding production and, to do so, you may need to have a larger number of machines.
If you do not have the necessary resources to buy a machine such as a CNC milling machine or if you want to test the results you obtain with it for a period of time, we encourage you to contact us to find out about our leasing system.
As it is a rental, the VAT on the instalments is deductible as an expense and, on the other hand, it does not generate accounting debt, as you have not taken out a loan as with the ICO subsidies.
To give you an idea of our prices, here is an example of renting a TEC-CAM Motion milling machinewith a 1,300 x 2,500 mm "turnkey" table:
To be paid in 48 instalments: 824,26€ / month + VAT *.
o be paid in 60 instalments: 674,20 € / month + VAT *
*conditional on the risk analysis of the financier
Take advantage of all the options offered by public and private entities to evolve and make the leap to internationalisation. They are more at your disposal than you think!
