Malaga, October 3, 2023. At today’s plenary session of the GSG Global Impact Summit, the COFIDES chairman, José Luis Curbelo, presented the company’s Social Impact Fund (FIS, for its acronym in Spanish) which aims to boost the social and environmental impact investment ecosystem in Spain. 

He explained that the ultimate aim of the Fund is to address social and environmental challenges, including inequality, territorial and social integration and consolidation of the welfare state, by strengthening the economy and social-purpose businesses.

He also stressed that the Social Impact Fund will allocate 400 million euros from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to boost impact investment and bring more private funds to a sector that is often overlooked by traditional financing systems. It proposes to meet “unmet challenges and generate an additional impact by designing new financial instruments that are in line with the current social economy, which will attract private investors to impact investment”.

The FIS will pursue two interrelated objectives, firstly, strengthening the social enterprise ecosystem based around new initiatives, and secondly, supporting purpose-driven businesses through investment and financing instruments. These companies do not necessarily need to be new or innovative, as long as they play a basic role in improving the welfare state.

The COFIDES Director-general, Miguel Tiana, who took part in the press conference about the event, explained that different types of financing will be used, including taking out shares in impact investment funds and direct financing for purpose-driven or other eligible businesses, through equity or debt instruments that could feature concessional loans, where justified. The FIS will not grant subsidies under any circumstances, although a technical assistance facility will be available to support loans and to cover part of the cost of improving the metrics for measuring impact.

The COFIDES Director-general believes that “the FIS will be an innovative way of mobilising private investors on a large scale. It aims to transform and consolidate the ecosystem, attracting private equity to achieve its goals. Its ability to act as a catalyst through combined finance that allows it to attract private investors while mitigating risk and improving their return expectations will be a key factor”.

The GSG Global Impact Summit, which is the biggest global event of the impact  movement, will bring together 1000+ practitioners and leaders from the worlds of finance, business, policy-making, and civil society from around the globe.

Chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment – GSG – is a global platform with 34 member countries who want to catalyse change in enterprise and investment decision-making to benefit people and the planet. Under the UK’s G8 presidency, the GSG was set up in 2015 as the successor to and incorporating the work of the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce.

SpainNAB, the Advisory Council for Impact Investment, is an alliance of 45 leading organisations from the investment, business, third sector, administration and civil society sectors to promote impact investment in Spain. SpainNAB is a member of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG), which currently has 34 member countries, in addition to the EU.

ABOUT COFIDES

COFIDES is a state-owned enterprise specialized in the management of State funds that provide medium- and long-term financing for private investments linked to different public policy purposes. COFIDES directly manages funds aimed at supporting the internationalization of Spanish firms, strengthening the solvency of companies severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to attract foreign direct investment into Spain through co-investment deals and to contribute to the growth of the impact investment ecosystem in Spain. In addition, COFIDES supports the management of the financial cooperation portfolio of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, promoting sustainable development in emerging economies and developing countries. In the ownership structure of the Company, the Spanish State holds 53% of the equity. The remaining 47% is held by Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Banco Sabadell and Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).