France looks to boost export financing to help mid-sized defense firms

PARIS — French public investment bank Bpifrance is seeking to increase the amount of export financing it can provide to small and medium-sized defense firms, as the current limit is insufficient to meet some demands, the bank’s head of export finance said.

Bpifrance currently provides up to €25 million (US$27 million) of financing for export deals when it’s acting as the single lender and would like to raise that to around €40 million in 2025, Hugues Latourrette, the head of the Bpifrance export-finance department, told Defense News at the Euronaval show outside Paris.

“We’re pushing in that direction because we feel there’s a need,” Latourrette said. While Bpifrance’s limits on export financing affect only a few companies for now, “due to the dynamics of the industry, it’s something that could evolve rapidly.”

The public investment bank fills a market gap, as few large commercial banks are interested in providing small and medium-sized exporters with financing for amounts below €40 million, according to Latourrette. He declined to provide details on the companies seeking export financing from Bpifrance, citing reasons of confidentiality.

Foreign defense markets are “extremely competitive,” and manufacturers from Turkey, South Korea and Israel “can make life difficult for our manufacturers in France,” Latourrette said during a forum discussion at Euronaval. A commercial and technical proposal is not necessarily enough to win an export deal, and often needs to be accompanied by a financial offer, the banker said.

France was the second-largest arms exporter in the 2019-2023 period after the United States, accounting for 11% of global arms exports, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The country has around 4,000 small and medium-sized defense-industry firms, according to the Armed Forces Ministry.

Bpifrance helps defense exporters win contracts, including through financing deals on the African continent, and the bank is involved in export negotiations in Europe, Latourrette said. The bank only provides financing in euros, and doesn’t engage in dollar transactions for reasons of extraterritorial action.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——法国公共投资银行Bpifrance的出口融资主管表示，该行正寻求增加向中小国防企业提供的出口融资额度，因为目前的限额不足以满足一些需求。

法国公共投资银行 (Bpifrance) 出口融资部门负责人休斯·拉图雷特 (Hugues Latourrette) 在巴黎郊外的欧洲海军展上告诉《防务新闻》，该行目前作为单一贷款方为出口交易提供高达 2500 万欧元（2700 万美元）的融资，并希望在 2025 年将融资额提高到 4000 万欧元左右。

拉图雷特表示：“我们正朝着这个方向努力，因为我们觉得有这个必要。”虽然法国公共投资银行（Bpifrance）对出口融资的限制目前只影响到少数公司，“但由于行业的动态变化，这种情况可能会迅速发展。”

拉图雷特表示，公共投资银行填补了市场空白，因为很少有大型商业银行愿意为中小出口商提供低于4000万欧元的融资。他以保密为由，拒绝透露向法国公共投资银行（Bpifrance）寻求出口融资的公司的具体信息。

拉图雷特在欧洲海军展的一个论坛讨论会上表示，国外国防市场“竞争极其激烈”，来自土耳其、韩国和以色列的制造商“可能会给法国制造商带来不小的麻烦”。这位银行家指出，仅仅提供商业和技术方案并不一定足以赢得出口订单，通常还需要附带一份财务报价。

根据斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所的数据，2019年至2023年期间，法国是仅次于美国的第二大武器出口国，占全球武器出口的11%。据法国武装部队部统计，该国拥有约4000家中小型国防工业企业。

拉图雷特表示，法国公共投资银行（Bpifrance）帮助国防出口商赢得合同，包括通过融资方式促成非洲大陆的贸易交易，该银行也参与欧洲的出口谈判。出于域外法律责任的考虑，该银行只提供欧元融资，不参与美元交易。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。