Bahrain private companies may request financing by Liquidity Fund from today

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Liquidity Fund announced that it would start receiving financing requests for private sector companies and institutions from today (July 1), in partnership with the participating national banks - the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), the Bahrain Islamic Bank (BISB) and the Bahrain Development Bank (BDB).

The move is in line with the directives of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to launch the financial and economic stimulus package to mitigate the impact of Covid-19, and the decision of the Cabinet, chaired by HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to reopen the door for applications to the Liquidity Fund with a focus on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Applications for large companies, with an annual income of BD3 million and more, will be received for a period of one month, running from July 1 to August 1 via the nbbonline.com website.

These companies can obtain financing from the Liquidity Fund provided that they have an active Bahraini CR, have been operating in the Kingdom of Bahrain for 4 consecutive years, demonstrate they are solvent with a positive net worth, in addition to having audited financial statements for 2 fiscal years, including 2018 and 2019, with a positive profit margin for the fiscal year 2019, internally audited financial statement for the fiscal year 2020, and interim financial statements for 2021. Furthermore, the companies must operate within the affected sectors as per the decision of the Minister of Labour and Social Development No. 47 of 2021.

The applications for SMEs, with an annual income of less than BD3 million, can submit their applications from July 1 and run until September 30 through the website bdb-bh.com.

Eligible SMEs looking to obtain financing from the Liquidity Fund are required to have an active Bahraini CR, have been operating in the Kingdom for at least 1 year, and for companies that have been in operation for at least 3 full fiscal years, they must submit financial statements for the previous 3 years, including audited financial statements for the fiscal year 2019, and demonstrate positive gross margins for at least 1 year, while companies who have been in operation for less than 3 years will be asked to submit financial statements and demonstrate positive profit margins in accordance with the number of years of activity.

Moreover, eligible SMEs should not have filed for bankruptcy under the bankruptcy law and must operate within the affected sectors as per the decision of the Minister of Labour and Social Development No. 47 of 2021.

The Liquidity Fund will allow companies that have previously benefited from financing facilities under the previous rounds of the Fund to submit requests to extend the financing repayment period or increase the facility amount up to the maximum allowed. All requests for support will be subject to the discretion of the banks.

The Liquidity Fund’s package will amount to a maximum of BD300,000 for SMEs, and up to BD1 million for large companies, with the value of the financing facility for eligible companies being determined based on the bank's review of the applications and their credit evaluation.

It is not necessary for the applicant seeking financing to have an existing bank account in one of the national banks contributing to the Fund (NBB, BBK, BISB and BDB) in order to apply for financing.