Aid to businesses affected by COVID-19

To be eligible to apply, a company must meet the following criteria:

• the enterprise must operate in the Republic of Lithuania. That means jobs it creates are in Lithuania and/or it pays taxes to Lithuanian authorities;
• it must be a large or medium-sized enterprise as per the Law on SMB (a medium-sized enterprise would have at least 50 employees at the consolidated level at the time of application);
• as of 31 December 2019, it was not deemed an undertaking in difficulty. If it was deemed to be an undertaking in difficulty but is not so deemed at the time of application, it meets this criterion;
• the enterprise must have submitted financial statements to the Centre of Registers for the past two years;
• the enterprise should not be included on the list of unreliable taxpayers;
• without state aid, it would have serious difficulties continuing its activities;
• the enterprise is unable to obtain the funding it needs on the financial markets;
• the enterprise’s managers and/or shareholders must meet reputational requirements (not convicted of a serious, very serious or intentional crime against the economy, financial system, etc.).

Sectors where companies are not eligible to receive aid from the Fund include:

• weapons and ammunition;
• tobacco and tobacco products;
• manufacturing, processing and specialised trade of alcoholic beverages and related products (except for the manufacturing of non-distilled alcoholic beverages);
• gambling and betting;
• financial services and insurance;
• enterprises with 25% or more state or municipal ownership.

Priority will be given to companies based on the following criteria:

• inclusion on the list of enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic published by the State Tax Inspectorate;
• the importance of the enterprise at the sectoral level;
• the amount of taxes and wages paid by the enterprise prior to 16 March 2020.

Interest rates are set considering:

• the term of the investment;
• the lending risk and collateral quality;
• the hurdle rate (the minimum rate of return required by the Fund’s investors);
• the expected level of insolvency of the Fund’s portfolio investments;
• the management fee payable to the Fund’s manager (general partner);
• the European Commission’s minimum requirements for interest on investments.

An enterprise that wishes to apply for aid must complete an application (download the application form).

The application should include as much detail as possible about the enterprise, its shareholders and managers, financing needs, operating forecasts for the next few years, the financial situation in the last three financial years, and so on.

You can download the application and evaluation procedure here.

Please submit the application by e-mail to info@viva.lt.

Phase I. Preliminary decision on whether the enterprise is eligible for funding

The Fund evaluates the application and makes a preliminary decision on whether the enterprise is eligible for funding. If the preliminary decision is positive, the Fund then determines:

• in what ways and to what extent the Fund could finance the enterprise;
• what additional information and/or documents the Fund may need to decide on funding the applicant, including documents whose preparation requires the involvement of reliable partners.

Time frame: 15 business days

Because the Fund’s decisions must be taken as expeditiously and objectively as possible, applicants may be asked, when submitting their final application, to provide an opinion, assessment or conclusion on certain issues (i.e. due diligence) from property appraisers, lawyers and/or auditors selected by the Fund and recognised by it as reliable partners. The Fund will not reimburse or compensate the costs incurred by applicants in working with the Fund’s reliable partners.

Phase II. Final decision on financing the enterprise

The Fund then takes a final decision to finance or decline to finance the applicant. If the decision is to provide funding, the Fund also determines:

• in what ways and to what extent the Fund agrees to finance the enterprise;
• a timetable for financing actions;
• the main conditions of the proposed funding, including the main provisions of the agreements and other documents needed to provide the funding or drafts of those documents;
• where necessary, conditions to be fulfilled prior to the provision of all or part of the funding or once funding has already been provided.

Time frame: 5 business days after the preliminary decision.*

* If additional documents are requested, time is calculated from when they are submitted.