Guaranteed Leasing

• If the lessee and its beneficiary, as defined in Article 2 (14) of the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, or to natural persons and legal entities for the benefit of which the loan funds shall be used are subject to sanctions (any trade, economic or financial sanctions, embargoes or other restrictive measures), which are established, applied or administered by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, the Republic of Lithuania, the Government of the United States of America (including the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
• If the lessee does not meet the minimum criteria of reliable taxpayers, established in Article 401 of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Tax Administration. Compliance with this requirement shall be assessed according to the publicly announced information of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, published on the website at https://www.vmi.lt/evmi/mokesciu-moketoju-informacija;
• If the lessee has not submitted a set of annual financial statements for the previous financial year to the State Enterprise Centre of Registers, when such an obligation is established according to the legal acts applicable to its activities.

In this case, financial lease (leasing) shall be understood as a service, when an asset financed on the basis of instalments, chosen by the lessee independently, is purchased under the ownership of the leasing company, based on the leasing contract, is transferred to the lessee for use and management and, after the lessee makes a final settlement with the leasing company, becomes the property of the lessee.

Guarantees are also provided for reverse leasing transactions, if new, unused production equipment and/or devices were purchased by the lessee no earlier than 6 months before the date of applying to INVEGA for granting the leasing guarantee. In this case, the maximum leasing amount cannot exceed 90 percent of the asset acquisition value (excluding VAT) and when applying to INVEGA for the granting of a leasing guarantee, production equipment and/or equipment production (the newness of the equipment shall be assessed at the time of its acquisition) and documents confirming the purchase must be additionally submitted.

INVEGA guarantees shall not be provided for other services provided by leasing companies (rental of activities, etc.).
The lessee must be:

•  An SME entity;
• Registered in the Register of Legal Entities or registered as a taxpayer in the Republic of Lithuania;
• Non-bankrupt, restructuring and not experiencing difficulties, as defined in Article 4(6)(a) of Commission Regulation (EU) No. 1407/2013;
• Having concluded a leasing agreement with a leasing company for the acquisition of an asset by means of a financial lease,
• De minimis aid may be granted to the lessee (see the "De minimis aid" section)
• Able to pay an initial payment of at least 10 percent of the price of the asset financed on the basis of instalments;

The amount of the leasing guarantee must not exceed 80 percent of the difference between the price of the leased asset and the initial payment, and its size cannot exceed 60 percent of the price of the leased asset.

The amount of the leasing guarantee cannot be higher than EUR 1,500,000, and in the case of a lessee who has been operating for less than 3 years on the day of submitting the request for a guarantee to INVEGA, it cannot be higher than EUR 750,000.

The minimum leasing guarantee must be at least EUR 5,000.

If several INVEGA leasing guarantees and/or INVEGA loan guarantees are and/or have been granted to one lessee, the total amount of guarantees, taking into account the actual amounts (balances) of the obligations of the granted guarantees, cannot exceed EUR 10,000,000.

Applications for leasing guarantees submitted by leasing companies have to be processed by INVEGA within 20 calendar days after the receipt of the required documents.

The decision to issue a leasing guarantee is made by the managing bodies of INVEGA on recommendation of the Risk Management Committee of INVEGA – the Director General of INVEGA or, in special cases, the Board of INVEGA.

The Director General of INVEGA or an employee of INVEGA authorised by him or her signs a written guarantee within 3 (three) working days after the receipt of the leasing contract and the payment of the guarantee fee.

New and used production equipment and/or facilities:

• equipment, devices, apparatus, machines, facilities, mechanisms, technological lines, vehicles and other special equipment.
• separated parts of buildings, premises and/or other real estate;
• tangible assets or tangible assets together with related intangible assets (with software, licence, etc.).

The asset must be intended for: increasing the performance and productivity of the lessee (when an asset older than 5 years is purchased (the lessee must provide the Company with a justification (business plan or free form explanation) of how the acquired asset shall contribute to increasing the productivity of the lessee's activity).

The asset may not be:

• Assembly parts, except in cases where they are purchased together with production equipment and facilities;
• Trailers, semi-trailers, which are used to carry out cargo transportation activities on land roads on contractual basis or for remuneration;
• Vessels that are intended to carry out activities in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors;
• Railway and tram locomotives or rolling stock, aircraft, passenger cars (excluding commercial vehicles);
• Production equipment and/or devices when they are purchased from persons related to the lessee (its participants, subsidiaries or parent companies and others);
• Used for personal purposes of natural persons related to the lessee.

Assets may not be leased if the lessee is engaged in any of the following areas: provision of financial services, insurance, production of ethyl alcohol, wholesale of alcoholic beverages, manufacture of weapons and/or their trade, production of tobacco products and/or their wholesale, organisation of gambling or betting. If the lessee carries out the activities mentioned in this sub-clause and other activities for which a leasing guarantee may be provided, it must ensure that the assets acquired through leasing shall not be used to carry out the abovementioned activities. Otherwise, i.e. if the lessee is unable to ensure (separate) that the assets acquired through leasing shall not be used for restricted activities, the leasing guarantee shall not be provided.

Valuation of leased assets:

It is not mandatory if new (unused) production equipment and/or devices are purchased, which were manufactured no earlier than 12 months before the conclusion of the leasing agreement, and which were not used for their intended purpose.

An assessment by independent asset valuators or a leasing company shall be mandatory (optional) if production equipment and/or facilities older than 5 years are purchased.
Assessment by independent property valuators shall be mandatory if:

• Production equipment and/or facilities older than 5 years are purchased;
• Production equipment and/or facilities owned by the lessor or persons related thereto are purchased (i.e. when the seller of the asset financed on the basis of instalments is the lessor or a company of the group of companies to which the lessor belongs).

The valuation of the assets must be carried out no earlier than 6 months before applying to INVEGA for the granting of a leasing guarantee.

The lessee pays a guarantee fee to INVEGA for the issuance of the leasing guarantee.

The guarantee fee will be calculated on the basis of the guarantee amount and the duration of the use of the guarantee, i.e. a fixed base for the first year of use (1 to 12 months) and an annual charge for each subsequent year. The fixed base will depend on the lessee’s age (up to 3 years – 1 %, over 3 years – 1.5 %). The annual charge will be 0.2 % for each additional year (i.e. 0.2 % for 13–24 months, for 25–36 months, etc.).

Please find below the pricing table:

* – the age of the company is calculated as from the date of receipt of the guarantee application.

Examples of guarantee pricing.

1) Age of the lessee is up to 3 years, the lease term is 4 years, and the duration of the guarantee is 3 years.

Guarantee fee = Fixed base + (n * annual charge)

Guarantee fee = 1 % + (2 * 0.2 %) = 1.4 %

2) Age of the lessee is over 3 years, the lease term is 5 years, and the duration of the guarantee is 4 years.

Guarantee fee = Fixed base + (n * annual charge)

Guarantee fee = 1.5 % + (3 * 0.2 %) = 2.1 %

Leasing guarantees are provided as de minimis aid under Regulation No 1407/2013.

The aggregate amount of de minimis aid provided and/or intended to be provided in the current and 2 previous financial years may not exceed EUR 200,000 per company. The maximum amount of de minimis aid for road transport companies is EUR 100,000.

These thresholds apply irrespective of the form of de minimis aid or objectives to be achieved and whether the aid provided is fully or partially financed from resources originating in the EU.

The amount of de minimis aid provided in the form of a leasing guarantee is calculated according to the provisions of Regulation No 1407/2013 and depends on the amount and duration of the guarantee. Before adopting a decision to provide a leasing guarantee, INVEGA verifies that the lessee is eligible to receive de minimis aid and calculates the amount of de minimis aid which would be provided in the form of a leasing guarantee and fee financing and reserves it in the Register of Provided State Aid. Once INVEGA decides to provide a leasing guarantee and issues a written guarantee, the relevant amount of de minimis aid is registered in the Register of Provided State Aid.