The Debt Office’s lending

The Debt Office primarily provides loans for infrastructure projects following decisions by the Riksdag and the Government. Loans may also be furnished for other activities considered essential or which are intended to mitigate an economic crisis.

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Situations sometimes arise in which banks and other financial institutions are, for various reasons, unwilling to lend money to activities that the Riksdag and the Government consider fulfil an important public interest. These may be major infrastructure projects or other investments of importance to society. In such cases, the Riksdag and the Government can commission the Debt Office to provide a loan. This is done following a thorough analysis and on a commercially sound basis.

Lending, 30 September 2020

Debt office lending

The Debt Office’s lending

A-train

Commissioned by the Government, the Debt Office issued a conditional loan, of SEK 1 billion to the private company A-Train AB in 1995.

The loan was part of the collaborative project between the Government and the private industry to finance, build and run Arlandabanan, which links Arlanda Airport to the national rail network.

Upon completion of the project, A-Train was granted a 40-year right of use for Arlandabanan in order to finance its investment. The loan is structured so that the total repayments to the Government as a whole from A-Train can be either higher or lower than the loan amount. Both the size and time of repayment are determined by A-Train's financial results and the size of the dividends received by the owners.

Another government operator involved in Arlandabanan is the government-owned company Arlandabanan Infrastructure AB. The company owns and manages Arlandabanan. We handle a liquidity and capital adequacy guarantee for Arlandabanan Infrastructure AB.

Svedab

As part of the financing of the Öresund Link, the Debt Office has provided a loan to the government-owned company Svedab.

Upon completion of the Öresund Bridge in the late 1990s, land connections to the bridge needed to be erected on both the Swedish and Danish sides. In Sweden, the government-owned company Swedab was responsible for construction of the motorway and railway that connected the bridge to the Swedish road and rail networks. The equivalent work on the Danish side was carried out by the government-owned company A/S Øresund.

Svedab and A/S Øresund formed and are owners of the Öresundsbro Consortium, which has financed and built the Øresund Bridge. The holding companies are entitled to the dividends the consortium is expected to produce in the future.

In order to finance the land connections, Svedab received a loan from the Debt Office in accordance with a government decision. The loan runs until the Öresundsbro Consortium has provided sufficient dividends to its owners for Svedab to be able to repay its loan to us.

As of December 2014, the loan amounted to just over SEK 5 billion. According to the latest forecasts, Svedab will have repaid its loan around the year 2040.

Svedab is short for Svensk-Danska Broförbindelsen Svedab AB.

 

Sweden sometimes grants loans directly to individual countries. The Government may assign the Debt Office to handle these loans, after authorisation by the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament).

The Debt Office is currently in administering one such loan, to Ireland. Recently we also administered a loan to Iceland, and in 2010 and 2011 we administered a loan facility agreement with Latvia, which the country did not make use of.

Loan to Ireland

In May 2012 Sweden and Ireland signed an agreement on a loan of a maximum of EUR 600 million. The Government approved the loan after authorisation from the Riksdag, and instructed us to disburse and administer the loan. 

Sweden's loan to Ireland is granted on condition that the country follows the programme set up by the International Monetary Fund and the EU in connection with its financial assistance programme for Ireland. The United Kingdom and Denmark are also lending money to Ireland on condition that the country complies with the financial assistance programme.

Four-tranche loan

The loan to Ireland was disbursed in four tranches, each of EUR 150 million. The disbursements were made in 2012 and 2013, after approval of the relevant reviews of Ireland's financial assistance programme by the International Monetary Fund and the EU. The loan from Sweden is to be completely repaid by the end of 2022.

Loan to Iceland

The Debt Office disbursed the first tranche of a loan to Iceland in late 2009. Earlier the same year the Riksdag had authorised the Government to approve a loan from Sweden to Iceland. The loan was a supplement to the International Monetary Fund's coordinated action to support the Icelandic economy.

The loan from Sweden was granted jointly with loans from Norway, Denmark and Finland. Disbursements of the loans from the Nordic countries were to be made on condition that Iceland met the requirements set up by the International Monetary Fund under the programme. The Faroe Islands and Poland also granted loans to Iceland.

Iceland repaid the loans from the Nordic lenders in full in July 2014.

Four-tranche loan

The loan agreement of EUR 495 million between the Swedish and Icelandic governments was signed in July 2009. The Debt Office was instructed to issue and administer the loan, which was to be disbursed in four tranches.

Under the original agreement Iceland could request disbursement of the loan up to the end of 2010. In August 2011 the parties agreed to extend the availability period to the end of 2011. By the end of 2011 the entire loan amount had been disbursed. The loan was to be completely repaid at the end of 2021.

Early repayment

In the first half of 2012 Iceland made two early repayments on the loan from Sweden, of EUR 102 million and EUR 188 million respectively. Iceland repaid the remaining outstanding loan amount in July 2014, following a successful public issuance of euro-denominated bonds.

Loan to Latvia

The Nordic countries and Estonia undertook to jointly extend credit to Latvia in 2010, totalling EUR 1.9 billion. Sweden's share of the loan was a maximum of EUR 720 million. When the agreement lapsed in December 2011 Latvia had not utilised any of the credit facility.

The Ministry of Finance also provides information on Sweden's lending to other countries.

Since 2002, the Government has been authorised by the Riksdag to commission the Debt Office to enter agreements with two companies on co-financing of civil aviation industry projects.

The companies are Saab AB and GKN Aerospace Sweden AB, previously Volvo Aero Corporation, which participate in various development projects in the civil aviation industry.

The Debt Office has provided three so-called royalty loans to GKN. The loans co-financed the research and development of components for the aircraft engines Trent 900, Trent XWB and GEnx. The Trent engines are built by Rolls Royce and fitted in the Airbus A380 and A350 XWB respectively. GEnx is built by General Electric and is fitted in the Boeing 747 and 787.

The royalty loan to Saab co-financed the company's development of wing spars for the Airbus A380.

Revenue-based repayment

The royalty loans entail that Saab and GKN pay a royalty (a percentage) to the Debt Office on their revenues from the sale of wing spars and engines respectively. They pay no fixed interest or amortisation.

The royalty is intended to repay the Debt Office's co-financing of the research and development project. It should also cover borrowing and administration costs and compensate for the risk.

The Government has chosen to subsidise the royalty rate that the Debt Office has offered Saab and GKN. Part of the cost of the loan is thus funded from the central government budget.

The Debt Office has paid out a total SEK 766 million in royalty loans. The loans are expected to generate income for the Debt Office over the next 20 to 50 years.

The financial crisis peak of autumn 2008 made it difficult for Swedish exporters to obtain loans with long maturities, which is a prerequisite for many export deals. The Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) decided to increase the availability of export financing.

Part of the associated measures is the National Debt Office's task to make available a loan facility for the Swedish Export Credit Corporation. In 2014, the loan facility amounts to SEK 80 billion and may be used for lending within the CIRR system for officially supported credit.

During the period 2009 to 2013, the loan facility amounted to SEK 100 billion, and could be used for commercial export financing as well as for lending within the CIRR system. The Swedish Export Credit Corporation has not yet made use of the loan facility.

In 2004, the Debt Office issued a loan of SEK 15 million to Stiftelsen Nordiska museet (the Nordic museum foundation).

The loan was for financing the reconstruction of Nordiska museet's entrance hall. The loan decreases with amortisations and is expected to be repaid in 2015.