“Until now, small businesses could not access certain financing formulas that were only available to large companies in the Ibex 35. Today this has changed. We are seeing more and more companies doing business in the markets and who access different sources of financing with lower volumes”explained this morning Gonzalo Gómez Retuerto, managing director of BME Fixed Income, who participated in a round table at a financing conference Green for small and medium-sized businesses organized by BME and ESG rating company EthiFinance at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace. Visit the specialized elEconomista ESG portal.
Regarding sustainable finance, Retuerto explained that “it already represents a representative part of the market; around 15% or 20% of the issues we host on the MARF (Alternative Fixed Income Market) already have ESG labels. [acrónimo de ambiental, social y de gobernanza] and I think this trend will continue over time.” The percentage will increase: ““I don’t know if it will represent 50% of emissions, or 40%, but the trend is increasing.”he clarified. Exclusively in promissory notes, within the MARF, more than 20% of the programs are already sustainable, said Julián Romero, moderator of this round table and president of Ofiso, the Spanish Observatory of Sustainable Finance.
“This year is spectacular in terms of sustainable financing figures in Spain,” added Gómez Retuerto.. According to a half-yearly report published by Ofiso, in the first half of 2024, the Spanish sustainable debt market “experienced a surprising growth of 36% compared to the same period last year, while the global market fell by 15 %”. The total volume issued in Spain reached 17,001 million euros of responsible debt; 76% of this amount corresponded to green bonds, 21% to sustainable bonds and the remaining 3% to social bonds.
Regarding the difficulties related to the process of placing this type of debt, Enrique López, CEO of Amper, explained that when this company started issuing, “as we had the homework done in advance, The preparation process took us a few months and the management with the MARF less than a month. Now, it’s true that I involved myself as much as possible in the process. » The licensed advisor, he added, “will not do the work for you; They guide you and validate you, but you do the work,” he stressed; “and in companies like ours, the subscriber doesn’t put you in debt either; It puts you in touch with bond investors in this country, but we are placing our debt,” he added.
Also present at the table was Albert Rams, CFO of Nexus Energía, who highlighted the favorable aspects of sustainable financing: “We quickly began to see the benefits that this could have, along with the costs and the heavier burden financing. work involved; but we found that it allowed us to get some kind of discount on the interest rates, in addition to something very important, which affects more investors. “Many of them already include sustainability among their eligibility criteria.”
At the same event, Pablo Esteban, deputy general director of Spainsif, a platform that promotes sustainable investment in Spain, presented the main findings of the report. Sustainable financing for SMEs in Spain. According to the study, banking entities are starting to offer green financing products to SMEs, but Few entities still have a portfolio of products linked to sustainability.
