Promoting entrepreneurial initiative – enabling sustainable development
Focus on positive development and contributions to climate action
To harness opportunities, open up markets and compete: these are the guiding principles of enterprises that operate and invest in developing countries. They bring entrepreneurial thinking, capacity for innovation, a willingness to take calculated risks and a sense of responsibility to the table – qualities crucial to achieve long-term success. Many of these enterprises need long-term funding and reliable partners to develop sustainably.
Global challenges such as climate change and the repercussions of escalating geopolitical conflicts, megatrends such as digitalisation and increasing demands for sustainability make it even more imperative for enterprises to make their business models fit for the future.
That is where DEG comes in. We offer financing, advice and support to private-sector enterprises operating in developing and emerging-market countries. As a leading European development finance provider, we consciously invest in developing markets that offer opportunities to private enterprises. That is because enterprises play an essential role in creating skilled jobs, income and prospects on the ground. The vast majority of jobs are created in the private sector.
Our customers can rely on our expertise, built up over a period of 60 years. They can benefit from our market knowledge, our 19 locations worldwide, our international network and our in-depth impact and climate expertise. We provide enterprises with specific advice and support during their transformation, with the aim of strengthening their resilience and achieving even greater development impact.
As our customers’ strategic partner and in discussion with them, we develop solutions that provide more than just capital and are individually tailored to their needs. We advise and assist them even before an investment has been made. We provide ongoing support and can be relied upon even in challenging times. Our advisory and promotional programmes also help to enhance business performance and the development impact.
Focus on impact and climate
The core of our work is the development-related impact. We make a tangible contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, by creating fair working conditions, reducing poverty, promoting innovation and developing infrastructure. Together with our customers, we approach climate change and its consequences in developing countries as responsibly as possible. That is why DEG has long avoided co-financing coal-fired power stations.
Starting in 2022, we have been focusing our business model on further enhancing the positive development impact of the investments that we finance and on actively supporting the transformation of our partner enterprises. This includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with the DEG portfolio set to be climate-neutral by 2040.
Our Impact/Climate Commitment sets out in detail how we are resolutely navigating this journey as an impact/climate finance provider and adviser on transformation.
As well as direct finance for private enterprises provided in the form of loans and equity participations, we also make long-term funding available for banks and private equity funds, which in turn provide capital to local businesses. This enables specifically small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries to implement their business ideas and to invest.
The enterprises we finance operate in agribusiness, the services sector, infrastructure, the financial sector and in manufacturing. They are from developing and emerging-market countries, from Germany, and from other industrialised nations. In many cases, we have supported them across decades. They value our experience, our qualified staff, our flexibility and our long-term outlook. Together, we have set our sights on sustained entrepreneurial success.
DEG’s portfolio now amounts to approx. EUR 9 billion – financing entrepreneurial investments made by around 700 customers in approximately 80 countries.
Our involvement represents considerable leverage. For 2021 alone, new commitments of EUR 1.5 billion have enabled businesses to invest more than EUR 8 billion. In addition, in 2021 DEG mobilised a further EUR 507 million from lenders for investments in developing countries.