Activity and Sustainability Report 2020
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Letter from Our actions Management Supplementary Introduction Our organisation Financial statements the Chairman and our impact activities information 2020 Activity and Sustainability Report Contents Letter from the Chairman 03 Female leadership in internationalisation 39 Financial statements 71 Added impact 44 Introduction 07 External verification certificate 72 Management activities 48 Annual accounts 77 Activity milestones 08 Map of business history 13 Operational and management capacity 50 Supplementary information 132 ‘Portfolio management in the Approvals, formalisations, outlays 53 Report parameters 133 midst of a pandemic’, by Rodrigo Madrazo, Portfolio by region and sector 54 Director-General of COFIDES 15 Principles of the Global Compact 137 Analysis of non-financial business risks 55 Interview with Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director GRI table of contents 138 Corporate governance 55 General of the European Union’s Directorate Report of external assurance 144 Social and environmental factors 56 General for International Partnerships 17 Commercial and institutional action 59 ‘Solidary Finance’, article by Magdy Martínez-Solimán, Director, Spanish International Cooperation for Our organisation 62 Development Agency (AECID) 23 Board of Directors and Management Team 63 Our actions and our impact 25 Adaptation to remote working at COFIDES 65 Internationalisation, pathway to economic recovery 26 Staff 66 Combating climate change in Africa 32 Carbon-neutral office 68 Driving digital conversion 35 Stakeholder relations 68 2 Letter from Our actions Management Supplementary Introduction Our organisation Financial statements the Chairman and our impact activities information Letter from the Chairman In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic wei- contrast, amounted to a very substan- ghed heavily on the world economy, tial M€156.86, due both to the large generating an unprecedented crisis. volume of formalisations in 2019 and Despite those exceptional circumstan- a client preference for liquidity. COFI- ces, COFIDES continued to provide its DES’s total portfolio rose to a record services to the very highest standards M€1138.5 in 2020, up 5.4 % over the of commitment and conduct its preceding year. business normally, with staff working remotely most of the time. All com- The projects formalised in the target pany employees have accommodated year will contribute to the creation and the new situation admirably. maintenance of direct, indirect and induced employment and more speci- COFIDES adopted strict measures to fically to the creation of an estimated monitor client and project status with 23 500 direct jobs, over 4200 of which a view to providing a speedy response will be held by women. to unexpected needs for liquidity. The company approved deferral of the Despite the obstacles stemming from payments due in 2020 on projects fi- the pandemic-induced constraints nanced with its own resources, as well on mobility, COFIDES intensified the as the Fund for Foreign Investment support afforded the Spanish Interna- (FIEX) and the Fund for SME Foreign tional Cooperation for Development Investment Operations (FONPYME). Agency (AECID) in managing its Fondo para la Promoción del Desarro- The year’s exceptionally low numbers llo (FONPRODE) [Development Pro- of approvals and formalisations motion Fund (FONPRODE)]. COFIDES are attributable to the uncertainty contributed to the substantial 60 % generated by COVID-19. Layouts, in growth in the number of proposals (10) 3 Letter from Our actions Management Supplementary Introduction Our organisation Financial statements the Chairman and our impact activities information submitted to FONPRODE’s staff salary incentives to the attain- Executive Committee and the ment of such goals. The company healthy 9 % increase in the sums also continued to support efforts involved. The volume of yearly to estimate the impact associated formalisations, involving among with contributions to the Sustaina- others four microfinance opera- ble Development Goals (SDGs) by tions and one investment fund, taking direct part in the internatio- was up 75 % on the preceding year. nal exercises pursuing the harmo- nisation of objective measurement 2019-2021 indicators. Strategic Plan Development projects COFIDES made further progress with the EU in the implementation of the action outlined in its Strategic COFIDES strengthened its leader- Plan 2019-2021 and in particular ship position in negotiating, struc- of the presence of sustainability turing and furthering projects able Meeting with employees to discuss the 2019-2021 Strategic Plan. as the vector spanning across all to mobilise European Union public company business endeavours. resources and thereby multiply losses on renewable energy Latin American microfinancing An innovative impact investment private investment in developing investments in marginal areas of institutions. operation materialised in the countries. The outcomes, enhan- the sub-continent; the Huruma target year with the formalisa- ced trust and coordinated working Fund, which has mobilised Climate Change tion of the Huruma Fund. The relations with several community substantial amounts of private Funding company formalised the first two services and Spanish cooperation investment for developing com- operations funded with its own for development agencies, are petitive and sustainable farming The company has also made signi- resources with provisions lowering expected to be consolidated in in the neediest countries; and the ficant progress in comply ing with costs for clients meeting certain the years to come. Highlights COFIDES-headed Triple Inclusive its commitment to combat clima- sustainability goals. In a similar include the Renewable Energy Finance (TIF) Program, the EU’s te change, with adherence in May vein, for the second year running Program for Sub-Saharan Africa, first blending finance endeavour 2020 to the One Planet Sovereign it linked corporate objectives and which provides security for initial to provide technical assistance to Wealth Funds (OPSWF) initiative 4 Letter from Our actions Management Supplementary Introduction Our organisation Financial statements the Chairman and our impact activities information Finance Institutions’ (EDFI) Board governance. In keeping with the of Directors, a position of strategic Santiago Principles, IFSWF fosters significance inasmuch as it affords excellence in sovereign fund the company direct participation governance, transparency and in decision-making. COFIDES also responsible investment, as well became shareholder and member as professional, independent and of the Board of EDFI’s EDFI Mana- commercially-inspired investment gement Company, enhancing our management of such funds. We company’s access to investment believe that COFIDES’s mem- projects abroad. In addition bership in IFSWF may also afford to EDFI initiatives for tackling Spanish companies a fuller unders- COVID-19 and its effects, COFIDES tanding of and enhanced relations signed a joint statement with its with a significant number of global sister institutions committing to investors, thereby heightening the align all new financing decisions possibility of international invest- with the Paris Agreement climate ment in our country. objectives by 2022. The company also invested M€5 in each of the Under the conviction that our EDFI’s two new two financing actions and projects must be José Luis Curbelo’s participation in the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds Annual Summit, vehicles, European Financial Part- aligned with the Sustainable addressed by President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron. ners (EFP) VI and Interact Climate Development Goals and contribute Change Facility (ICCF) I, drawing 50 to compliance with Agenda 2030, whose 33 institutional investor Coordination with % from its own and 50 % from FIEX COFIDES renewed its commitment members hail from around the European Development resources. to the United Nations’ ten Global world. OPSWF aspires to integrate Compact Principles. Finance Institutions financial risks and opportunities It adhered as well to the Inter- related to climate change in the (EDFI) national Forum of Sovereign The Spanish Ministry of Ecological management of large, long-term Wealth Funds (IFSWF), a world- Transition and Demographic asset pools. In 2020 COFIDES continued to sit wide network of sovereign funds Challenges’ Office on Climate on the European Development committed to furthering good Change (OECC) awarded COFIDES 5 Letter from Our actions Management Supplementary Introduction Our organisation Financial statements the Chairman and our impact activities information its ‘CALCULO-COMPENSO’ seal, more important than ever in this our shareholders for their support granted to organisations that new stage of recovery. The years and the Secretariat of State for calculate and compensate for ahead will consequently bring Trade, all of whom have been the carbon footprint generated major challenges to COFIDES, to essential in our ongoing efforts to by their direct and indirect emis- which the company’s entire staff provide the private sector with the sions in the preceding year. The strive to rise transparently, responsi- financing needed to ensure in- company’s 2019 footprint was bly and solvently. Our involvement clusive and sustainable economic compensated in 2020 via collabo- in Recapitalisation Fund manage- growth with a positive impact. ration with one of the forestry CO2 ment will have no impact on the compensation projects registered efficient, high quality investment