11/13/2008 14h49
BNDES foresees help to 200 companies
Valor Econômico - 11/13/2008
The government should provide a bridge loan for good quality companies that are suffering with the crisis, to help them to make their recovery among the dramatic world financial crisis viable. That is what the vice-president of the Economic and Social Development National Bank (BNDES), Armando Mariante indicated yesterday, after a meeting at the World Trade Organization (WTO), which dealt with the lack of financing in the world exchanges. He said that there are not so many companies in need of "oxygen", but this number would not be much smaller than 200. The new instrument will not privilege sectors, and part of the money may come from the new line of credit of R$ 10 billion (US$ 4.7 billion), recently created by the Economic and Social Development Council (CDES). Mariante explained that the decision should involve the Treasury Ministry, the National Treasury, BNDES and other agencies of the government. There are companies with very good intrinsic quality, with good management, good competitiveness, low debt, but that had punctual problems, because credit was much repressed or because they made a bet in the Brazilian real against the US dollar", said the vice-president of the state bank. The idea is to give more flexibility to certain financings. "BNDES finances much fixed investment. In this case, companies mostly need working capital, a bridge loan, with somewhat longer terms to adjust their accounts and redo their planning."
