Investment Plan for Europe: EIB supports Castellum’s Nearly-zero-energy-buildings - Hoofdinhoud

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a EUR 75 million loan with real estate company Castellum, for the construction of two “Nearly zero-energy buildings” in Sweden. The loan was made possible by the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), central pillar of the European Commission's Investment Plan for Europe.

“We’re particularly proud to support Castellum in this initiative, also since climate action is high on the agenda for the European Investment Bank.” said Romualdo Massa Bernucci, Director for EIB lending in the Nordic countries. “Both residential and office buildings are responsible for a large part of the CO₂ output, so making them more energy efficient is an important step in mitigating our footprint in large cities.”

Cecilia Malmström i, Commissioner for Trade, said: "Improved energy efficiency in buildings is an important part of our transition towards a greener society but it often requires significant investments. This is where the Investment Plan can play an important role. With today's agreement, the European Fund for Strategic Investments will contribute to Sweden's development towards a reduced dependency on fossil fuels."

Castellum will use the loan to construct two new Nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) office buildings, specifically the “Torsplan” building in the Hagastaden part of Stockholm and the “Citypassage” in central Örebro.

“We at Castellum are convinced that sustainability efforts provide the Group with a competitive advantage. It is economically viable, both short and long term, to work with sustainability. Well integrated sustainability efforts contribute to a more efficient management and improved control of our properties. We are pleased to see that the EIB finds our projects attractive and is willing to support our ambitions”, says Castellum’s CEO Henrik Saxborn.

“It´s positive to us that we can benefit from attractive financing from the EIB on an unsecured basis”, says Castellum’s CFO Ulrika Danielsson. “We see it as a sign of trust, as well as a quality stamp”.

With climate action as a main priority for the EIB, Castellum’s initiative in constructing NZEB fits perfectly with the Bank’s strategy and comes after a number of similar projects that the EIB supported recently in Sweden, Finland and Germany.

Background Information:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. In 2016 alone, the Bank made available nearly EUR 1.7 bln in loans for Swedish projects in various sectors, including urban development, industry and research.

Castellum was founded in the beginning of 1990 and is one of the leading real estate companies in Sweden as well as being among the 20 largest listed real estate companies the Europe in terms of market capitalization. Castellum is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Large Cap and employs approximately 400 people. The Company is engaged in the acquisition, ownership, management and development of commercial property on a long-term basis.

The Investment Plan for Europe is one of President Jean-Claude Juncker i's top priorities. It focuses on boosting European investments to create jobs and growth by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects. The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is the central pillar of the Investment Plan. It provides a first loss guarantee, allowing the EIB to invest in more, often riskier, projects. The EFSI is already showing concrete results. The projects and agreements approved for financing under the EFSI so far are expected to mobilise close to EUR 169 billion in total investments and support some 387,000 SMEs across all 28 Member States.

In September 2016, President Juncker proposed to extend the EFSI by increasing its firepower and duration as well as reinforcing its strengths. You can find the latest EFSI figures by sector and by country here.

Press contacts:

European Commission (Brussels): Enda McNamara, +32 460 792 945, Enda.Mcnamara@ec.europa.eu

European Commission (Stockholm): Johan Wullt, + 46 8 562 444 06, johan.wullt@ec.europa.eu