FBC China

During the fall Timo Heikkilä has been on a project in Shanghai based out of the FinPro office at FinChi. Regularly he works as a finance manager out of Finnvera’s Oulu offices, but during the last months he has been visiting old and potential customers in the Shanghai region, as well as helping out in Finpro’s projects. We sat down with Timo for a coffee on a chilly Friday afternoon and he explained what Finnvera is all about.

“We step in to share risks with other financiers on the market”, explains Mr. Heikkilä. “However, as we operate on a zero-profit policy we are able to assume a higher degree of risk than regular commercial banks, for instance”. This will become handy in situations where a company’s regular bank is unwilling to assume all credit risk for, for example, an investment project. Finnvera can either act as a guarantor for a regular bank loan or act as a financier themselves. “In any case, our role is purely in financing, not donations or subsidies. Also, our terms are often similar to those at commercial institutions.”

“Basically one could say that we fill a gap in the market where commercial banks are not willing to venture”, Mr. Heikkilä sums up the policies. This does not mean that funds are thrown left or right, every deal is scrutinized very carefully.

Apart from investments Finnvera is also an active actor in supporting Finnish export. Not only taking on the role of a guarantor for exports, but also financing internationalization projects. This is substantiated by the figures: out of the nearly 17 billion Euros that Finnvera is financing, around 75% is related to foreign trade.

When asked about the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Finnvera Mr. comments that the demand for their services has increased about 60% during the last years as the traditional channels for financing dried up. Finnvera was very quick to act and to dramatically increase its supply of financing.

Timo Heikkilä can be contacted in Shanghai until December 11^th at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 187 2101 8112, after that in Oulu via the same e-mail address. Another source of information is of course Ms. Anja Pakkala, in charge of East-Asian affairs, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it