(AGENPARL) – Mon 07 July 2025 PRESS RELEASE2025-273-EN
Madrid, 7 July 2025
New boost for Regional Resilience Fund rollout, financing affordable housing, urban development and sustainable tourism
The EIB has announced the signature of agreements with Arcano Partners and Buenavista Infrastructure totalling €410 million.
The agreements will channel new funding to urban development projects (including those promoting affordable housing) and others related to sustainable tourism.
The funds come from the Regional Resilience Fund financed by NextGenerationEU and implemented by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise with EIB support.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed agreements with Buenavista Infrastructure and Arcano Partners to channel a total of €410 million to new urban development projects (including those promoting affordable housing) and others related to sustainable tourism.
The agreements were made possible by a contribution from the Regional Resilience Fund, part of Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and financed by NextGenerationEU. More specifically, this was facilitated by the launch of a new EIB-managed instrument to channel financing via financial intermediaries to back urban development and sustainable tourism.
The intermediaries selected by the EIB will assess investment opportunities across the country to promote urban development in areas such as affordable housing, education, healthcare, social and cultural infrastructure, sustainable mobility, waste and water management, energy efficiency and sustainable tourism. The investment period runs until December 2030.
The first two intermediaries selected for the distribution of these funds were Arcano Partners (with a €210 million signature) and Buenavista Infrastructure (€200 million).
The first two intermediaries selected for the deployment of these funds were Arcano Partners and Buenavista Infrastructure. Arcano Partners has been allocated €210 million by the EIB, which it will channel through “Spanish Urban Development SICC” fund. Buenavista Infrastructure was allocated €200 million to be channelled through “Buenavista NextGen Urban SICC” fund. Both are regulated vehicles set up specifically for this action. Funding can happen in the form of both equity investment and debt, or a combination of both. The maximum allocation per project is 22 million while maximum recovery periods are 15 years for equity investments and 20 years for debt.
“These agreements are a further step forward in the rollout of the EIB Group-managed Regional Resilience Fund and will drive new investment to promote urban development and sustainable tourism. The resources can also go to affordable housing projects, which is one of the EIB Group’s strategic priorities,” said EIB Director General of Financing and Advisory Operations within the European Union Jean-Christophe Laloux. “Close cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise made it possible to launch this new line of action for the Regional Resilience Fund, promoting key investments in Spain’s regions.”
“Thanks to the signature of these agreements, the implementation of the intermediated instrument for urban development and sustainable tourism materialised. This instrument is one of the pillars of the Regional Resilience Fund. It will channel funds to relatively small projects that aim to invest in social and affordable housing and urban regeneration, as well as sustainable tourism activities. Furthermore, funds from the Regional Resilience Fund continue to be a crucial tool for the green transition in Spain, supporting projects that promote sustainability in key areas such as housing and tourism in various regions of the country,” said Inés Carpio, Director General of International Finance at the Treasury.
Partner in Asset Management at Arcano Partners Eduardo Fernández-Cuesta added: “We are very proud to be once again have the confidence of the European Investment Bank to channel vital financing to bolster our national infrastructure, with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. This combined debt and equity strategy will enable Arcano Partners to continue to diversify our capabilities and deliver the excellence we guarantee to our private investors and the public sector institutions that rely on us to manage investments.”
Managing Partner at Buenavista Infrastructure Victoriano López-Pinto said: “We are very grateful for the vote of confidence in our judgment and expertise in facilitating the use of EU funds. With this new allocation, we have become one of the leading European fund managers by volume of European funds under management. Our team is one of the most experienced in managing public funds and we are excited to be able to contribute to this project promoting local connections, sustainable urban development and the renovation of our national tourism infrastructure to make it more sustainable.”
Background information
The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight core priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, the capital markets union, and a stronger Europe in a more peaceful and prosperous world.
The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high-impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.
All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.
In Spain, the EIB Group signed €12.3 billion of new financing for more than 100 high-impact projects in 2024. This financing is contributing to the country’s green and digital transition, economic growth, competitiveness and improved services for residents.
High-quality, up-to-date photos of the organisation’s headquarters for media use are available here.
Regional Resilience Fund
The Regional Resilience Fund (RRF) was created to facilitate access to NextGenerationEU loans from the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the autonomous communities, with the aim of boosting investments and developing projects in eight priority areas: social and affordable housing; urban renewal; transport and sustainable tourism; the energy transition; water and waste management; the care economy; research, development and innovation; and the competitiveness of industry and SMEs.
The fund is led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, which takes input from the autonomous communities and cities for investment decision-making and looks to the EIB Group as a strategic management partner.
The initial phase of the RRF includes the activation of up to €3.4 billion in financing via:
a direct financing mechanism, to co-finance EIB-supported operations in sectors like renewable energy, clean transport and sustainable infrastructure;an intermediated mechanism managed by financial intermediaries selected by the EIB, to support projects in urban development and sustainable tourism;two instruments intermediated by the European Investment Fund that will facilitate SME financing for innovation, sustainability and competitiveness.
Arcano Partners
Arcano Partners, founded in 2003, is an independent global firm with more than 20 years of experience in international financial advisory and private markets’ asset management. Arcano currently has four business areas:
Asset Management, with more than €12.5 billion managed and advised since the start of its activity in 2006, and with six asset classes: Private Equity, Credit Strategies, Real Estate, Sus-tainable Infrastructure, Venture Capital and Aviation Finance; Arcano has a strong focus on sustainability and responsible investment, being one of the benchmark asset managers in ESG.
Investment Banking provides advisory services in M&A, refinancing, restructuring and capi-tal markets transactions to companies in various sectors; Arcano has specialized teams by sector, and additionally offers a transversal technology/digital approach.
Research & Consulting provides economic, real estate and differential market analysis, as well as geopolitical and technological analysis of both local and global trends. This analysis is extremely useful for optimizing business decisions, especially in environments of extreme uncertainty where the impacts of making mistakes are profound and can be mitigated by in-vesting in quality analysis.
Asset Finance, an area that allows investors to participate in the creation of solutions for the financing of real or intangible assets in Spain.
Arcano Partners has a team of more than 260 professionals of more than 20 nationalities across 7 offices in Europe and the United States and has become one of the independent firms of reference in the European private markets industry.
Buenavista Partners (www.buenavistaequity.com)
Buenavista Equity Partners is an independent asset manager founded in 1996 that operates in the middle-market segment. It currently manages more than €1 billion through different Private Equity, Infrastructure and Venture Capital vehicles.
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