Commission approves Finnish measures for Tesi group's consolidation and capital injection

The European Commission has approved, under EU state aid rules, Finnish measures to consolidate Finnish State-owned companies active in risk capital and private equity activities, which will become the Tesi group. Under the measures, Tesi will benefit from a capital injection of €300 million.

The objective of the consolidation is to simplify the current set-up and to separate the activities supported by the state from those conducted on a purely commercial basis by Tesi, the new parent company of the group. Following the consolidation and capital injection, Tesi's objectives will be to promote the growth of Finnish small and medium-sized enterprises, in relation to new technologies, as well as sustainable business activities.

The Commission assessed the measures under EU state aid rules, in particular Article 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. The Commission found that the measures are market-conform and, hence, free of aid, because i) the capital injection into Tesi will generate returns comparable to similar private equity ventures in the Finnish market, ii) Tesi's possible investments will be consistent with private investors' strategies, and iii) under the new organizational set-up, cross-subsidization between state aided activities performed by Tesi's subsidiary Teollisuustuki, and the commercial activities carried-out by the parent company Tesi, will be avoided. On this basis, the Commission approved the Finnish measures under EU state aid rules.

The non-confidential version of the decision will be made available under the case number SA.113383 in the state aid register on the Commission's competition website once confidentiality issues have been resolved.

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