Paris, September 29th, 2023

At the occasion of the 15th annual meeting of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) which took place from September 24th to September 27th in Madrid, and considering the growing number of French and Spanish companies having cross border activities or projects in France and Spain, COFIDES and Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, have decided to enter discussions to develop an operational cooperation dedicated to financing and supporting private sector projects, including SMEs, in both countries through dedicated investment vehicles and specific programmes.

COFIDES and Bpifrance are both developing actions and tools to promote foreign investments in their respective countries and promote internationalisation of companies amongst both countries.  

The two institutions both share a common objective aiming at accompanying the development of SME’s and supporting the development of industrial projects, in particular those promoting the climate and digital transitions.

Pascal Lagarde, Executive Director at Bpifrance says: “We are very willing to develop a cooperation with COFIDES as it is important to strengthen and densify economic relations between France and Spain and benefit from the dynamic trend of the Spanish economy. With Cofides we face the same challenges and working together to develop cooperation amongst public European investors is key.”

Miguel Tiana, COFIDES Director-General, adds: “We look forward to intensifying the collaboration with Bpifrance, since we share the objective to increase the presence of Spanish and French companies in each other’s economies and to join efforts to finance private sector investments in both countries”.