AFD - Universal Registration Document 2020

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PRESENTATION OF AFD

Activities of the Agence Française de Développement Group in 2020

Estimated at more than €1bn, it resulted in a series of concrete actions focused on three components: health emergency, economic emergency and sustainable recovery. This initiative has made it possible, with constant resources, to make the most of all the tools used by the Group to meet the needs of overseas public and private players in the very-short and

medium-long term as part of post-COVID-19 reconstruction. The Agency’s actions included: (i) Ǿ strengthening regional epidemic surveillance and response networks, (ii) Ǿ processing requests for the extension of loan maturities for companies and local authorities and, (iii) Ǿ granting emergency loans to New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

❙ Loans, provisions and guarantees given on its own behalf, by product

Approvals

Variance 2020/2019

2020 1,220 1,206 1,085

2019

€M 336 331 404 -157 530

%

In millions of euros

Ongoing operations

884 875 712 544 168 163

38% 57% 52% -29% 315% -26% 49% -55% 84%

Loans

Public sector

Subsidised loans to local authorities

729 698 122

Other loans – public sector

Private sector

-42

Direct financing

69 53 13

46

23

Banks

117

-65

Grant

7 2 0 0 0 2 0

6

1 0 0 0 1 0

-1

Guarantees (1)

Guarantees granted to the public sector Guarantees granted in the banking sector French Overseas Department Fund SPM and Mayotte guarantee funds Equity stakes and Ǿ other long-term securities

0 0 0

-1

0

(1) The guarantees presented above do not take into account Sogefom’s authorisations. (€27M in 2020) and FOGAP (€1M in 2020)

In contrast to subsidised loans, loans granted under the PSP-Vert Green Fund equivalent increased in 2020 (+32%, or €156M in commitments). This increase reflects the growing consideration of environmental issues and the fight against climate change in investments by the local public sector overseas. In addition to traditional subsidised loans, the French Ministry of Overseas Departments and Collectivities and AFD have experimented with a subsidised loan intended to pre-finance the FCTVA. First rolled out in Mayotte as part of the recovery plan, before considering an extension to other overseas departments, this loan aims to support the investment of local authorities by enabling them to maintain a good level of cash flow. The year 2020 was also marked by the launch of the French Overseas Territories Fund; as a result, 91 Ǿ projects were approved for a total of €16.5M, of which 73% for the engineering component, 18% for regional projects and 9% for research. For the private sector, loans to companies amounted to €91M for ten projects, a satisfactory level even if lower than the level of the previous year marked by significant funding for SOCREDO (€117M). Direct loans to private companies (excluding financial intermediation via BCI and ADIE) amounted to €44M, close to the previous year but for a higher number of projects (ten projects). The competitive environment for sector financing remained difficult in a context of significant liquidity and low interest rates.

Activity in the private sector was at a satisfactory level in 2020 with €91M in direct loans granted, in addition to the €27M in guarantees, for a total of €120M. Loans to the public sector amounted to €1.1bn (compared with €712M in 2019), a sharp increase, in line with 2019. The Group’s active mobilisation in the COVID context boosted activity overseas. Thus, of the €1.1bn in commitment authorisations , €729M was granted for non-subsidised loans (compared to €168M a year earlier), which were themselves drawn from the support measures of the “Outre-mer en commun” initiative, and in particular the emergency loans of €240M each granted to the French Polynesia and NewCaledonia Collectivities for the partial financing of their safeguarding plans. After an exceptional level of commitment in 2019, subsidised loans were in line with the trend of previous years, at €387M. These loans were down by 29%, under the combined effect of the slowdown in local authority investments due to the COVID crisis, and local election cycles. In fact, the approach of the ballot traditionally affects the pace of investment, but the health crisis has severely disrupted the electoral calendar and has notably delayed the establishment of numerous municipal teams. The renewal of municipal councillors in large local authorities in 2021, as well as the closure of the European programmes for 2014-2020, may also explain the significant slowdown observed this year in subsidised commitments for the benefit of the regions and departments.

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2020 UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT