Brussels (Brussels Morning) The Brussels government has decided to grant additional financial resources to Brusoc, a subsidiary of finance & invest.brussels, in order to support small businesses, in the form of a recapitalization of 15 million euros.
According to Secretary of State for Economic Transition Barbara Trachte (Ecolo) who made the announcement on Friday, the priority objective of the operation is to support, via loans, small businesses (-10 FTE) existing before the Covid-19 crisis, whose activity was structurally impacted, directly or indirectly, with a view to reviving the Brussels economy. Brusoc has already played a key role in financing small businesses during the crisis through the RECOVER and OXYGEN loans which have been widely mobilized.
Brusoc’s interventions may also be carried out with companies (with a maximum of 10 FTEs) having opted for a Judicial Reorganization Procedure (PRJ) following the health crisis and presenting credible recovery prospects.
This operation takes the form of a recapitalization of Brusoc. These are therefore structural resources made available to Brusoc which will allow the financing of VSEs in the short, medium and long term. These resources further strengthen the financing tools available in the Brussels-Capital Region and are part of a logic of complementarity with the “Boosting.brussels” solvency and recovery fund, which is currently being created. The latter, endowed with 80 million, will be managed by finance & invest.brussels and will support the largest companies.
Clear investment criteria
It should be noted that clear investment criteria will be defined. These will exclude harmful sectors and ensure that the social and environmental impacts of companies are taken into account.
Following the recapitalization of Brusoc, the Region, which today is a 26% shareholder, 74% in finance & invest.brussels, would see its percentage share increase to 43%, for 57% to finance & invest.brussels.
“Thanks to this recapitalization of Brusoc, the Brussels Region is continuing the work of professionalizing its economic tools. These new resources must support small businesses in the context of the crisis, but also form part of a longer-term redeployment logic of the real Brussels economy ”, commented Barbara Trachte.