ICO finances the Arteche Group's R&D+I investment plan for 20 million euros

12 November 2020

  • The investment plan has an estimated total cost of 54.2 million euros and has already secured 27 million euros in EIB financing.
  • The funds will help implement the company's innovation programme, aimed at developing transformation solutions for the electricity industry.
  • The project contributes to promoting the energy transition as it aims to develop safer and more efficient electrical systems

Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) has granted a loan of 20 million euros to the Arteche Group to finance its R&D+I investment plan for the 2020-2023 period. This Basque business group is a company that was established in 1997 from companies going back over 75 years. The group is engaged in the manufacture and supply of technologically advanced products, facilities and services in the electricity sector.

The investment plan has a total estimated cost of 54.2 million euros. The company has already secured financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for an amount of 27 million euros in a loan arranged in December 2019 and included within the Investment Plan for Europe programme.

The investments will be used at the company's centres in Bilbao, Vitoria-Gazteiz and Madrid, which will contribute to creating and maintaining jobs in Spain. The funds will allow the Arteche Group to carry out various investments in R&D+i in the electricity sector, related services and electronics manufacturing processes. More specifically, the company will develop new electronic solutions aimed at digitising the electricity grid and integrating renewable energy generation into the grid. 

The investment project will also support the company's innovation strategy, which is focused on the design and manufacture of its range of products and solutions (instrument transformers, relays, reclosers, ACP), promoting their efficiency, reliability and sustainability. These investments will allow the Arteche Group to modernise its digital infrastructure and innovate in the 800kV electricity sector, a segment in which very few companies operate worldwide. 

The development of this plan will have two benefits for climate action: on the one hand, it will allow the Arteche Group to improve the efficiency and quality of its production processes, and, on the other hand, the new solutions and products developed by the company for the electricity sector will help to adapt electrical infrastructure to facilitate the generation of renewable energy, a key step in the transition to a low-carbon energy model. The group is strongly committed to the most important international environmental standards and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as well as to being a corporate benchmark in innovation and development.

The Arteche Group has a presence in 13 countries and is a national and international benchmark in the sector, with teams operating in over 150 countries focused on generation, transmission and distribution networks, and companies in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Oceania. It currently has 1,800 employees.

With this new financing operation, ICO once again reinforces its commitment to Spanish companies with outstanding global reach and with a high level of innovation and technological capacity. 

In this way, the ICO Group contributes to improving Spanish companies'  competitiveness, creating a model of recovery and sustainable growth in all its actions, in line with the guidelines set out in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish economy that reflects the priorities established in the European Next Generation EU programme and the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework.