Austria-headquartered Borealis, a provider of solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilisers, is receiving support from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for further R&D for polymers. With a long-term EUR150 million loan, the EU bank is helping to finance product innovation in the area of advanced polymers. The two parties signed the loan contract recently in Luxembourg.

Borealis has customers in over 120 countries and around 6 200 employees worldwide. Together with Borouge, a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Borealis provides products and services to its customers throughout the world. Using the proprietary Borstar and Borlink technologies and with 50 years of experience in the field of polyolefins (polyethylene and polypropylene), Borealis and Borouge supply products to key industries in the areas of infrastructure, automotive engineering and advanced packaging.

With this loan, the EIB is supporting Borealis’ multi-annual investment programme at the company’s innovation headquarters in Austria as well as in Finland and Sweden where it has other innovation centres. The project focuses primarily on product innovation in the area of advanced polymers. In addition, the funds will be used to finance the firm’s vocational training programme.

Borealis is receiving this loan under a financing programme implemented jointly by the EIB and the European Commission. This so-called Risk-Sharing Finance Facility is an innovative instrument for sharing credit risks. It is aimed at improving access to external financing for private companies and public institutions promoting projects presenting a high financial risk in the fields of R&D, demonstration and innovation. The financing of R&D is one of the EIB’s top priorities. In the past year alone, its total lending in this area amounted to EUR15.6 billion.