Use financing as an extra selling point

Offer your customer financing and get the order. According to many companies, offering foreign customers an attractive financing solution helps to win the order. The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) can offer financing to your foreign customers and thereby make your export transactions come true, for instance, by offering your customer credit reserved for purchasing goods from you only.

In collaboration with EIFO and a bank you can offer your foreign customer credit without taking any unnecessary risk. This gives you a competitive edge compared to other suppliers. And even if your customer buys on credit, your company will be paid immediately.

This is typically done by a Danish or international bank offering your foreign customer a loan which is entirely or partially guaranteed by EIFO.

Export credit

Financing of foreign customers is called export credit and is primarily used in connection with sales of capital goods involving credit periods of six months or above.

EIFO is Denmark´s official export credit agency who has existed, under different names, since 1922. Our latest name was EKF Denmark´s Export Agency (EKF). In 2021, we offered guarantees and loans to foreign buyers worth more than DKK 15 billion, thereby helping to secure orders for Danish companies all over the world.

Several types of financing

Financing for foreign buyers can be structured in various ways by EIFO depending on the type of export transactions that the financing is meant to cover. This page offers you an overview of some of the solutions that we provide.

Buyer Credit Guarantee

A Buyer Credit Guarantee is a guarantee issued by EIFO to cover financing to foreign buyers of goods and services. With a Buyer Credit Guarantee from EIFO you can offer your customer financing with credit periods up to 8.5-10 years without risk while your company gets paid immediately.

The foreign buyer will normally have to prepay minimum 15 per cent of the order amount. A Buyer Credit Guarantee has no maximum limit and is used in connection with million-figure orders which are typically financed by a Danish or an international bank, for instance, in connection with infrastructure projects, hospitals and factories. EIFO covers up to 95 per cent of the loss and the bank’s deductible is therefore minimum 5 per cent.

SME Guarantee

An SME Guarantee works like a Buyer Credit Guarantee (see above) but is characterized by being reserved for Danish exporting SMEs and that EIFO covers up to 100 per cent of the bank’s risk on foreign customers. The SME Guarantee puts small and medium-sized export companies in a better position to offer a customer in a foreign country long-term credit on a specific export order of up to DKK 25 million. The thing is, even though your customer is granted credit, you receive your money on delivery.

Supplier Credit Guarantee

EIFO can also protect you against loss if you choose to offer credit yourself without involving a bank. The Supplier Credit Guarantee will keep you covered, both when your customer cannot or will not pay, if it is impossible to transfer money out of the country, or if war or civil war breaks out in the country. With a Supplier Credit Guarantee, you are the lender and can therefore add interest to the loan.

Brochures for download

Sell more on the export markets (for Danish exporters)
Finance your purchase in Denmark (for foreign customers) 

Project Financing Guarantee

The financing of new major projects such as wind farms, cement plants and solar projects are often structured as project finance where a group of banks and investors joint forces to provide financing for a project.

This type of projects often involve greater risks than normally accepted by banks in connection with loans. The risks involved are, for instance, a long time frame, the scale of the project, the technology and the future possibilities of selling the goods or the production of the project.

This is where EIFO can step in with a Project Finance Guarantee which offers banks security for the guaranteed part of their loan to the project. This may help to increase the risk-tolerance and Danish export.

EIFO is one of the world’s most experienced financing partners within especially wind. During the past 10 years alone, we have contributed to the financing of 120 wind farms all over the world, generating more than DKK 400 billion in private capital. Wind farms are often structured, but not always, as project financing.

Export Loan

An Export Loan from EIFO is typically used in the same types of export transactions as when EIFO offers a guarantee for financing of foreign buyers and projects. The difference is that in case of an Export Loan, EIFO is the lender and not only the guarantor of a bank loan. EIFO can offer an export loan when it is necessary to mobilise other investors and lenders and hereby secure financing of transactions with Danish export content. The credit period for an export loan is minimum two years.