The authorities want to negotiate with banks on granting preferential loans to companies from the electronics sector. The rate should be no more than 5% per annum, but the minimum loan amount, on the contrary, is rather big – 4 billion rubles. The industry reacted extremely positively to this idea, calling the current interest rates of banks unprofitable. The development of the initiative is still at the initial stage.
The Ministry of Finance of Russia is developing an additional mechanism to support Russian electronics, an industry that was severely affected first by the coronavirus pandemic, and then by anti–Russian sanctions. According to Kommersant, the mechanism consists in special preferential conditions for lending to companies working in this field.
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance held a meeting with the largest banks in Russia, held on August 1, 2022. The event was attended by employees of Alfa-Bank, VTB, Sberbank and several other financial organizations.
The idea of the Ministry includes the provision of loans to domestic companies from the electronics sector at a rate of 5% per annum. At the same time, enterprises will not be able to count on the opportunity to take out a small loan at such a percentage – the minimum loan amount, according to the proposals of the Ministry of Finance, is 4 billion rubles.
The Ministry of Finance proposes to issue preferential loans to companies from the electronics sector for various working expenses, for example, for the purchase of equipment and components. Also, this money can go to "the implementation of investment projects," the newspaper writes.
Banks in this case do not risk their income. Despite the fact that they will issue loans at a preferential rate, the money will be returned to them at the market rate. According to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, the difference to the banks will be compensated by the authorities – the funds will be borrowed from the reserve fund.
At the beginning of August 2022, there were no deadlines for launching the initiative on preferential lending to electronics companies. An unnamed source of the publication, who is aware of what is happening, stressed that the idea is currently "in the design stage."
According to the interlocutor of the publication, the initiative of the Ministry of Finance will be positively received by the participants of the Russian electronics market. He explained this by the fact that currently many of them "are clearly experiencing a shortage of working capital, including due to the fact that their foreign suppliers of components often require full prepayment."
Industry representatives really approve of the new idea of the authorities. Maxim Koposov, the director of Promobit, spoke positively about it, in particular. "In my opinion, stimulating demand is a good measure for the current competitive market," he said. – When suppliers have already produced products to the warehouse and it is worth speeding up its sale and production of a new one. The majority of electronics manufacturers in Russia are in a situation where the "flywheel of production" has either not yet been promoted, or has been stopped by sanctions, and it needs to be re-promoted from scratch."
Maxim Koposov added that now "the warehouses are empty, and in order for them to be filled with products, you need to make an advance payment now, and the products will be in a year." "In such situations, preferential loans for working capital for producers would be more effective measures. At a reduced rate, and, importantly, with the guarantee of the state, because electronics manufacturers, as a rule, do not have the necessary collateral," he said.
A top manager of an unnamed domestic computer vendor told Kommersant that the current interest rates on bank loans issued for new projects are unprofitable. "You can take a loan of up to 5 billion rubles at 3% in the Industrial Development Fund, but when you receive a large loan, you either need to pledge most of your property, or get a bank guarantee for five years, which the banks themselves are now reluctant to do because of the high risks," he said.
In April 2021, the authorities developed a new plan for the development of Russian electronics. It is calculated until 2030 and assumes the infusion of almost 3.2 trillion rubles into this sphere. Of this amount, the authorities want to spend about 420 billion rubles. for the creation of microelectronics production in the country according to the 90 and 28 nm technical processes.
