The European Investment Bank, the European Union’s long-term financing institution, has granted a second loan for Amadeus IT Group, subsidiary of Amadeus IT Holding, with the latter acting as the guarantor of the transaction.

The unsecured loan of €150 million has a nine year maturity.

It will be used by Amadeus to finance research and development activities in its distribution business line between 2013 and 2015. 

This loan is in addition to a previous €200 million loan received by Amadeus from the EIB in May last year, which had a nine year maturity and was made available to finance the research of a variety of projects in the IT Solutions business line between 2012 and 2014.

The EIB is the long-term lending institution of the European Union and is owned by its member states.

The EIB Group will significantly step up its lending activities for the 2013 to 2015 period to support the recovery of growth in Europe.

Following the Member States’ 2012 decision to increase the EIB’s capital, the EIB will lend an additional €60 billion over the next three years to promote sustainable growth and jobs, bringing annual lending volumes to €65-70 billion. 

One such goal is to promote the implementation of the knowledge economy, such as education, R&D and innovation.

Philippe de Fontaine Vive Curtaz, vice-president, European Investment Bank said: “This development loan to Amadeus follows on the success of the previous loan, announced in May last year.

“Again this is in line with our objective of making long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.

“Amadeus’ pedigree in developing successful IT solutions and commitment to innovating in the travel industry is unquestionable.

“We are confident this helps to fulfill the objective of ensuring that Europe’s knowledge economy remains world-beating.”