Changes
during and after the project
Even in a well-planned project, the person in charge may change, the project may need more time or the budget may change. The company implementing the project may require various restructuring arrangements, such as a merger with another company. You can seek a change in the terms of the loan granted by Business Finland if you cannot utilize the results of the project according to its set objectives. For most changes, you will need Business Finland's prior approval, but in some cases, you can just submit a notification.
Complete the change application in the online service on the "Changes" tab. You can select more than one change for the same application. Under "Other changes", you can indicate, for example, a change of the decision's event condition, a suspension of the project or a change in the public research steering group.
The change application can be submitted by the accountable project leader or a person with the right of representation entered into the Trade Register or separately notified to Business Finland.
If, due to the change, there is currently no person in the company who could submit the application through the online service, use a form.
Send the form to the Business Finland record office
Our online service will change October 15; after that you can follow these instruction:
If the project's accountable leader, contact person or the contact person for the cost statement changes, you can make the change in the online service. Only the project's accountable leader and the persons authorized to sign on behalf of the organization have the right to make changes in the online service.
Make the change in the project's Changes tab. The change in the contact person or contact person for the cost statement will become effective immediately after sending the change request. The change in the accountable leader will become effective after Business Finland has processed the matter. We will notify persons in charge of the project of this.
Please make sure that all the persons in charge of the project have access rights to the project.
If the bank account, into which the payments of the project funding have been paid, changes, send the new bank account number using the template Y1. Send a signed copy of the template to Business Finland's record office by secure email. The template requires the official signature of the organization.
Business Finland loans are usually unsecured loans. If the project is at risk of failure or the utilization of its results is considerably delayed, you may apply for an amendment to the loan terms. In the first instance, the loan period will be extended.
For especially weighty reasons, the loan period may be extended to at most 20 years and grace period to at most 10 years. The loan period and grace period may be extended by at most 3 years at a time. When the grace period is extended for less than the loan period, the repayment period increases and the annual instalment decreases. The loan period may be extended to permit the company to defer repayment of the loan until the project's technological and commercial success can be determined with more reliability.
If the financial utilization of the project or its results fails, the remaining principal and interest may in exceptional cases be waived in part or in full. Repayment may be waived up to the maximum amount of funding specified for the project. The estimated maximum amount of funding is stated in the funding decision. Repayment of the loan principal may not be waived for Young Innovative Companies funding decisions made before 15 February 2018.
The loan period cannot be extended nor repayment waived solely because the project's intended impacts, as declared by the company during the application phase and indicated in the funding decision, fail to materialize or because the company is in a poor financial situation.
*) For financial reasons, the Treasury no longer issues payment plans for overdue items, but they must be paid in full on the due date of the reminder or request for payment. Business Finland can only make a decision on the application when the installments and interest due before the appeal application have been paid in full.
Please submit a free-form application and necessary appendices to Business Finland's record office.
Answer the following questions in your application. On the basis of the application, Business Finland will assess whether it can waive the loan repayment or extend the loan period. If necessary, Business Finland will ask for more information.
Basic project information
Current situation of the company
Realization of the project
Marketing of the product/business
Competitive situation
Business resulting from the project
Send your application to Business Finland's record office
Amendments to the loan period must be made before loan installments fall due. Before submitting an amendment application, a payment plan for due loan installments must be negotiated with the State Treasury.
If the loan or interest fall due for payment while the application for a loan amendment is being handled, the State Treasury will send the customer an invoice for these. However, due payments will not be referred for debt recovery before Business Finland makes a decision on the loan amendment. Business Finland will inform the State Treasury that a loan amendment application has been submitted.
It is recommended that the interest due is paid to avoid incurring interest for late payment.
The practical arrangements for loans granted by Business Finland are responsibility of the State Treasury. If you have questions about the State Treasury's bond, please contact Treasury's Research and Development Loans Customer Service (contact information at the end of the page).
Amendments to the loan terms and conditions are regulated by Government Decree 1444/2014.
Obtain Business Finland’s prior approval or give prior notice if your company
and the measures will take place
You will need Business Finland’s approval beforehand when the above mentioned measure
Business Finland can approve the move if the desired impacts set for the project in the funding decision can be achieved in all material respects and it can ensure the company’s ability to repay the loan despite the changes. Business Finland can recover any funding already paid if the company has not sought approval in accordance with the financing conditions.
During the restructuring, the same business ID must retain
Suomen Asiakastieto will notify us of mergers and divisions automatically. We will contact you if we need more information to process the matter. Business Finland must approve the restructuring so that the State Treasury can transfer the loan to the acquiring company. The projects and loans related to the transferred business activities will be transferred to the Finnish company that is continuing the business.
The company must obtain Business Finland’s written approval for the ownership arrangement if the arrangement might impair the company’s ability to repay its loan. The company will also need an approval if less than five years has passed since the payment of the final funding installment and the control of the company is transferred outside the European Single Market or the desired impacts of the project are jeopardized.
You will need Business Finland’s prior approval when a change in the company’s majority shareholding or control is taking place. Carefully fill out the form A change in the company. Describe as clearly as possible the arrangement, its reasons and its consequences on the business and the revenue model of the company that has received the funding.
Send the template to Business Finland's record office
If the arrangement will take between two Finnish parties or two parties registered in the European Single Market and the business will continue unchanged, a written notice is sufficient.
When selling minority shares, you do not need to notify Business Finland if the company’s enterprise size class as defined by the EU remains unchanged. The ownership arrangement may affect the size class when the ownership of one party reaches 25 percent or more.
When another Finnish company acquires the business entirely or partially, it is possible to transfer all the funding decisions or some of them to the acquiring company. Subordinated loans can be transferred only if the conditions of the Limited Liability Companies Act are met.
To transfer any decisions, both the donor and the acquiring company must sign a written application for the transfer of a funding decision. As a rule, Business Finland requires that the funding decisions and the related loans are owned by the company conducting the business. Read more from Transferring a decision. (linkki bookmarkiin)
You will need Business Finland’s prior approval when you are planning to entirely or partially sell the business resulting from the project to another company. Carefully fill out the form A change in the company. Describe as clearly as possible the arrangement, its reasons and its consequences on the business, and the revenue model of the company that has received the funding.
Send the template to Business Finland's record office
If the arrangement will take between two Finnish parties or two parties registered in the European Single Market and the business will continue unchanged, a written notice is sufficient.
When the restructuring arrangement has been confirmed and the original recipient of the funding has received Business Finland’s decision, the parties can seek to transfer the funding decision.
Before Business Finland can transfer the funding decision to another company, the transferring company must submit a report of the project’s situation and the costs incurred during its implementation. Please submit the report in the online service as soon as you receive confirmation of the potential transfer of the funding decision. Attach to the report an auditor’s report or an assurance written by the contact person for the cost statement regarding the costs that the project has incurred to the transferring company.
File the application for the transfer of a decision using the form offered by Business Finland. Describe as clearly as possible the arrangement, its reasons and its consequences on the business, and the revenue model of the company that has received the funding. If less than five years has passed since the payment of the project’s final funding installment or the loan granted for the project is not fully repaid, please also submit an explanation of how the company is going to ensure the desired impacts of the funding.
Send the completed application with the signatures of both the donor and the acquiring company to Business Finland’s record office by secure mail.
Send the template to Business Finland's record office
Business Finland will assess the potential recipient company in the same way as when seeking new funding. If there are no obstacles to transferring the funding decision, Business Finland will transfer the related funding decisions to the acquiring company. To transfer the projects, the acquiring company must submit a duly signed approval notification of the funding decision (Y1).
Send the template to Business Finland's record office by secure email
If the funding granted to the project is a loan and the loan is transferred to a new holder, the customer must submit the following attachments to the State Treasury:
The funding decision cannot be transferred outside Finland. When the entire business is transferred outside the European Single Market, Business Finland can also demand the repayment of its grants for projects when less than five years has passed since the payment of final funding installment. When the business is sold outside Finland within the European Single Market, the loans granted by Business Finland will generally be repaid when implementing the arrangement.