Germany COVID-19 Resources
German government angekündigt 50B€ in emergency aid (Soforthilfe) to provide small businesses with one-time grants to cover operating costs for three months, including:
- Up to 9K€ for businesses with up to five employees;
- Up to 15K€ for businesses with up to 10 employees.
o German government angekündigt a “protective shield” package, including:
- Increased flexibility in reduced hours compensation benefit-Kurzarbeitergeld (more information hier),
- Tax-related liquidity assistance for businesses (more information hier),
- Expansion of existing guarantee and support schemes as outlined hier:
- Das KfW-Unternehmenskredit (“entrepreneur loan”):
o For companies in existence for more than five years;
o For SMEs: Assumption of risk (liability waivers) of up to 90%;
o For large companies: Assumption of risk (liability waivers) of up to 80%;
o Raising the maximum loan amount to 1B€;
o Now also available to large companies with annual sales of up to 2B€ (previously 500M€).
- Das KfW Wachstumskredit (“loan for growth”):
o For companies in existence for more than five years;
o Temporary widening of the loan purpose to general corporate finance, including working capital by way of syndicate financing (previously limited to investments in innovation and digitalization);
o Assumption of risk (liability waivers) of up to 80% (previously 50%) for the on-lending financing partners (usually the regular banks);
o Financing is offered from a loan amount of 25M€. The maximum loan amount is unlimited if there is evidence of a corresponding liquidity requirement;
o Now also available to even larger companies with annual sales of up to 5B€ (previously 2B€).
- Das ERP-Gründerkredit-Universell (“start-up loan”):
o For companies with less than five years of existence;
o For SMEs: Assumption of risk (liability waivers) of up to 90%;
o For large companies: Assumption of risk (liability waivers) of up to 80%;
o Raising the maximum loan amount from 1B€ to unlimited;
o Now also available to large companies with annual sales of up to 2B€ (previously: 500M€).
- For guarantee banks (Bürgschaftsbanken):
o The guarantee limit will be doubled to 2.5M€ (previously 1.25M€);
o The Federation will increase its risk share in guarantee banks by 10% to make it easier to shoulder risks, which are difficult to assess in times of crisis;
o The upper limit of 35% of operating resources in guarantee banks’ total exposure will be increased to 50%;
o To accelerate liquidity provision, the Federation is giving guarantee banks the freedom to make guarantee decisions up to 250K€ independently and within a period of three days.
- The large guarantee programme (parallel guarantees from the Federation and the Länder):
o Will now be opened up to companies in all German regions (previously limited to companies in structurally weak regions);
o In this programme, the Federation covers operating loans and investments with a surety requirement upwards of 50M€ and a guarantee rate of up to 80%.