aws Guarantee

aws Guarantee offers securities/collateral that your bank requires from you when granting a loan – and thus increase your chance of obtaining the loan.

Field of business

  • Production, service and trade enterprises
  • In the tourism and leisure industry subsidiary to ÖHT (Austrian Hotel and Tourism Bank)


Size of the company

  • All sizes – from sole entrepreneurs to SMEs and large companies


Phase of development

  • All stages - starting with the start-up-stage and including M&A-projects


Requirements

  • The business is located in Austria.
  • The company acts in its own name and on its own account.
  • The project provides a positive impact on the Austrian economy.
  • The project is realised in Austria (exemption: special terms and conditions for internationalisation).
  • The application is submitted before the start of the project (exemption: state aid free guarantees and guarantees according to de-minimis rules of more than 1M euros, for which the start of the project can already be 6 month prior to submission of the application.
  • Balanced risk sharing – depending on loan amount and project risk.
  • Any loan collateral in addition to aws guarantee depends on your project and the funding bank, eg. personal liability, mortgages, retention of title (exemption: special terms and conditions for doubling equity capital).  
  • For loans up to 100,000 euros aws waives securities with the exception of the personal liability of the entrepreneur or the major shareholders.
  • The guarantee is provided within the scope of de-minims or GBER but can also be state aid free.
  • For details on the preconditions we refer to the guidelines under „Downloads“.


Success rate

  • For SMEs and large companies 90 %,
  • For innovative Start-ups 30 %.

Type of financing

  • Guarantee for loans to finance fixed assets and working capital


Financing amount
Up to 80 % of a loan with a max. aws-liability of 15M EUR (for digitization projects and "green" projects according to EU taxonomy 25 M EUR) and a max. term of 20 years (depending on the project to be financed).

The following conditions apply to guarantees for working-capital loans:

  • With a guarantee rate up to 80 %
    • loans with final maturity up to 100,000 EUR
    • loans with equal half yearly instalments up to 2.5M EUR
  • With a guarantee rate of 50 %
    • Loans with final maturity of more than 100,000 EUR
    • Loans with equal half yearly instalments of more than 2.5M EUR for large companies and SMEs

The guarantee amount for investment in assets and working capital funding must not exceed 25 mio EUR per project.

From a project volume of 5 mio EUR aws does not take a risk share of more than 1/3 of the overall risk – with the exception of projects with high economic relevance and good credit ratings.

Term of the guaranteed loan 

  • Min. 3 years – max. 20 years
    Working capital loans usually up to 5 years


Eligible costs

  • tangibles, eg. machinery, equipment, construction
  • R&D costs eg. personnel costs, prototype costs, test material, external costs
  • current assets and working capital eg. rent, personal costs, goods, materials
  • marketing and sales costs


Costs

  • processing fee: from 0.25 % of the loan, 60,000 Euro, in the case of pre-guarantees min. 200 EUR and 0,25 % in case of realizing the pre-guarantee to a guarantee
  • guarantee fee: depending on your credit rating annually at least 0.3 % of the guaranteed loan to the extent of the guarantee ratio, in case of counterguarantees by EU-programmes also less
  • guarantee fee in case of preguarantees:
    • funding above 937,500 Euro: 0.3 % p.a. of  the  promised/committed guarantee amount for a term of 6 months

The interest rate of the loan guaranteed has to be agreed between the company and the respective bank.


Additional funding

  • aws erp-loan
  • aws Seedfinancing
  • Projects that do not have a plausible chance of success. In this respect, the company´s own resources/equity and the market opportunities of the of the company or the project are also included in the assessment.
  • Projects that are not carried out in Austria (exception: special terms and conditions for internationalisation)
  • Costs of export-related activities, in particular those directly linked to the quantities exported, to the establishment or operation of a distribution network or to other current expenditure linked to the export activity
  • Costs resulting form small amount invoices below EUR 150 (net)
  • Projects that consists in the sole transfer of ownership without project character (eg. through of a new strategic orientation)
  • Projects that do not have an entrepreneural character (eg. private parts of the project costs)
  • Pure order financing, i.e. short term loans or credit accounts used for the (interim)financing of individual orders
  • The recollateralization of existing loans
  • the purchase or construction of a building which is not used by the company itself but is constructes oder acquired for the purpose of rental and/or sale  (=real estate activities).

Process of application and approval

  1. You apply for an aws guarantee together with your bank at aws via aws Fördermanager.
  2. You will receive a confirmation of receipt from us.
  3. First we check the most important technical and formal criteria.
  4. If neccessary we clarify the project details together with you.
  5. We analyse your application in detail and decide whether your project can be funded– or not.
  6. In any case, we will inform you about our decision and in case of a positive decision we issue a guarantee letter.
  7. The guarantee letter has to be signed/accepted by you and the bank within 3 months calculated from the date of issue.
  8. The statement about the completion of the project as well as the fullfillment of all necessary conditions has to be submitted within three months starting at the end of the project implementation period.

Duration of the approval process

Depending on the amout of financing from 2 weeks to 2 months.

special terms/conditions: environmental sustainability and digitization

The aim is to facilitate the financing of projects related to ecologically sustainable economic activities that have a significant positive impact on the climate and the environment. Furthermore, promising digitization projects as well as recycling and production facilities for the production of components and devices for information communication and technologies in Austria are to be supported.

Link to details

special terms and conditions: young enterprises

Applications are constantly possible

Support in the financing of projects by young enterprises. The aim is the financing support for economically independent SMEs in the first 6 years after the founding or takeover date. The company must be operated in its own name and for its own account

Link to details

special terms and conditions: doubling of equity

applications possible any time

Support the financing of projects of young enterprises up to 6 years after their establishment. Equity, that has been raised for the project, can be doubled by a loan in the same amount. For this loan aws provides a guarantee of 80 % of the loan amount. The funds can be used for the purchase of tangible and intangible assets as well as for the financing of working capital.

Link to details

special terms and conditions: internationalisation

Ongoing submissions possible via aws Fördermanager

The aim is to facilitate the financing of direct investments by Austrian companies abroad.

Link to details

special terms and conditions: consolidation

applications are constantly possible

Support in the financing of projects that help securing the chances of success and the creation and securing employment

Link to details

special terms and conditions: Bridge-Finance-Guarantees due to the Corona Virus Crisis

With June 15, 2022 the application period for „aws-Bridge-Finance-Guarantees“ has ended.

The aim is to facilitate the financing of working capital loans from companies whose sales and earnings development is impaired by order, delivery or other market changes due to the "corona virus crisis".

Link to details

 

Your contact for projects up to 1 Mio. EUR

Anton Neunteufl
Anton Neunteufl
Garantien und Prämien für KMU
Maria Hüttmair
Maria Hüttmair
Garantien und Prämien für KMU
Mag.<sup>a</sup> Katharina Novakovic
Mag. Katharina Lichtenecker
Garantien und Prämien für KMU

Your contact for projects beyond 1 Mio. EUR

Monika Bednarik-Belan
Monika Bednarik-Belan
Garantien für Industrie und Internationalisierung
Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Wilhelm Hantsch-Linhart, MBA
DI Dr. Wilhelm Hantsch-Linhart, MBA
Garantien für Industrie und Internationalisierung
Hans Peter Oswald
Hans Peter Oswald
Garantien für Industrie und Internationalisierung

The main part of all guarantees issued under this program is made possible by a counter guarantee under EU-programmes like COSME or InnovFin and in connection with the European Plan for Strategic Investment („EFSI“).

EFSI aims at supporting the financing and realisation of productive investments in the European Union thus securing access to finance.