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Expert Group Meeting

Brussels, 13 March 2015

Study to determine flat-rate revenue percentages for the sectors or subsectors within the fields of (i) ICT, (ii) research, development and innovation and (iii) energy efficiency to apply to net revenue generating operations co-financed by

the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) in 2014-2020

DRAF FINAL REPORT

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Justification of the study

This study provides the information basis that will feed into the activities of the European Commission when formulating the delegated act referred to in Art. 61(3) of Regulation (EU) No. 1303/2013.

The flat rate approach implies that Member States may choose to apply a flat rate revenue percentage to proportionally reduce the operation’s eligible expenditure, as an alternative to project-specific calculation of discounted net revenue (or to application of reduced co-financing rates for particular priority axes).

The present study discusses the extent to which the application of flat rates is feasible in the sectors and sub-sectors of RDI, ICT and EE and, when relevant, suggests the rates that should be applied.

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Methodology

• Following the provisions of Art. 61(3), flat rates must be determined “taking into account historical data, the potential for cost recovery and the polluter-pays principle where applicable” of those operations that have been financed in the period 2007-13 under the provisions of Art. 55 of Reg. 1086/2006.

• Historical data relates to the so-called “Funding Gap” (FG) rate, defined as the share of discounted investment cost not covered by discounted net revenue, which is the parameter used in the period 2007-2013 to modulate the eligible expenditure and in turn the EU grant.

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Sources of information

Major Projects: data on revenue-generating projects contained into the Commission’s database of 2007-2013 extracted from “Infoview”.

Other operations available at EU level: additional data on funding gap rates of non-major operations from Jaspers.

Survey to the Managing Authorities: data on revenue generating operations co-funded by the ERDF OPs implemented in the period 2007-2013.

Fieldwork in the Member States: in-depth analysis of 15 selected Operational Programmes (in Czech Republic, France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Spain and UK).

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Sources of information

In addition, interviews were carried out with project analysts, business associations and market operators to complement and better qualify the quantitative evidence, as well as to discuss the main profitability factors of the markets.

Finally, a financial statement analysis at the firm level was carried out based on the balance sheet data of 257,726 firms operating in sectors that are comparable to the investment projects considered in this study, as contained in the Amadeus Database. The objective was to estimate trends in sector profitability and homogeneity in order to better frame the flat rate revenue percentages calculated on the project’s historical data

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Findings

1. Critical lack of historical data for revenue generating projects in the selected sectors

2. Reference flat rates can be calculated only for a number of sectors and subsectors

3. Large variation in revenue generation occurs across projects within the same sector or subsector

4. The calculated flat rates are in line with estimated market profitability in the different sectors

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Findings

Critical lack of historical data for revenue generating projects in the selected sectors

Revenue generating projects

Non-revenue generating projects

Total Due to lack of net-

revenues Due to State Aid Due to < 1MEUR

RDI 0.5% 16.1% 56.8% 26.6% 100%

ICT 0.1% 25.9% 20.1% 53.9% 100%

EE 0.8% 48.2% 16.5% 34.4% 100%

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RDI subsectors

Table 1. RDI subsectors

Sub-sectors N. of operations Total investment

costs (EUR) Average costs

(EUR) % of total costs

Research 23 397.144.517 17.267.153 22

Innovation 46 1.425.569.277 30.990.636 78

Total RDI 69 1.822.713.794 26.416.142 100

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ICT subsectors

Table 1. I CT subsectors

Sub-sectors N. of operations Total investment

costs (EUR) Average costs

(EUR) % of total costs

Broadband 21 1.520.993.305 72.428.253 97,1%

e-Health 10 2.194.159 219.416 0,1%

Other 3 43.306.042 14.435.347 2,8%

Total ICT 34 1.566.493.505 46.073.338 100%

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EE subsectors

Table 1. EE subsectors

Sub-sectors N. of

operations Total investment costs

(EUR) Average costs

(EUR) % of total

costs

District Heating 34 1 204 446 243 35 424 890 69.5

Energy efficiency in

buildings 35 26 845 636 767 018 2

Grid efficiency 14 418 412 268 29 886 591 24

Renewable energy 8 8 501 423 1 062 678 0.5

Other 12 73 506 925 6 682 448 4

Total EE 103 1 731 712 495 16 977 602 100

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Findings

Reference flat rates can be calculated only for a number of sectors and subsectors

The lack of historical data is worsened when splitting the sectors into

sub-sectors with problems of accountability encountered in terms of size, homogeneity and geographical coverage of the sample.

To ensure that flat rates are established with sufficient confidence the minimum requirements of acceptability, already used by the legislator to calculate the flat rates in other sectors, can be adopted.

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N. of operations & coverage RDI

Table 1. Country Coverage. N. of operations per country

BE DE ES FR LT MT NL PL PT SI UK CZ Total

Research 10 4 3 2 1 2 1 23

Innovation 10 1 2 3 2 1 5 19 1 2 46

Total RDI 20 1 2 7 2 1 8 21 1 1 4 1 69

Table 2. Country Coverage. Project value per country (% )

BE DE ES FR LT MT NL PL PT SI UK CZ Total

Research 9 29 11 3 28 17 3 100

Innovation 9 6 50 0 1 2 4 12 4 11 100

Total RDI 9 5 39 7 1 1 6 10 3 6 12 1 100

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N. of operations & coverage ICT

Table 1. Country Coverage. N. of operations per country

BE FR GR IT LT PL UK Total

Broadband 13 1 1 1 4 1 21

e-Health 10 10

Other 1 1 1 3

Total ICT 1 13 2 1 1 14 2 34

Table 2. Country Coverage. Project value per country (% )

BE FR GR IT LT PL UK Total

Broadband 46 11 12 4 12 16 100

e-Health 100 100

Other 1 94 5 100

Total ICT 44 13 11 4 12 15 100

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N. of operations & coverage EE

Table 1. Country Coverage. N. of operations per country

FR ES GR NL PL RO HU Total

EE in Buildings 4 0 0 0 5 0 26 35

District heating 0 0 2 0 28 1 3 34

Grid efficiency 0 0 0 0 11 0 3 14

Renewable energy

0 0 0 0 0 0 8 8

Other 2 1 0 1 0 1 7 12

Total EE 6 1 2 1 44 2 47 103

Table 2. Country Coverage. I nvestment costs per country (% )

FR GR NL PL RO HU Total

EE in Buildings 34 0 0 31 0 35 100

District heating 0 9 0 87 4 0 100

Grid efficiency 0 0 0 100 0 0 100

Renewable energy 0 0 0 0 0 100 100

Other 12 0 18 0 68 3 100

Total EE 1 6 1 85 6 1 100

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Funding gap rates analysis

Sector

(sub-sector)

No. of Projects

No. of countries Avg. FG

(%) Median FG (%)

Min. FG (%)

Max. FG (%)

Standard Dev. FG

(%) Max/Min

ratio

Resulting Flat Rate

(%)

RDI 69 12 81.5 87.7 19.5 99.9 19.2 5.1 20

Research 23 7 85.2 95.0 46.1 99.9 17.2 2.1 15

Innovation 46 10 79.7 87.5 19.5 99.7 20.1 5.1 20

ICT

Broadband 21 6 69.8 70.3 16.5 98.8 23.2 6.0 30

EE 83 7 58.8 56.4 14.5 95.2 20.9 6.5 40

EE in Buildings

35 3 50.9 48.8 14.5 92 19.9 6.3 50

District heating

34 4 69.7 60.8 34.5 95.2 17.1 2.8 30

Grid efficiency

14 2 50.9 54.2 15.5 82.3 21.2 5.5 50

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Sector

(sub-sector)

No. of Projec

ts Min

Acceptability

No. of countries

Mini Acceptab

ility

Standard Dev. FG

(%)

Max

(%)

Acceptability

RDI 69 19 12 6 19 12

Research 23 19 7 6 17 12

Innovation 46 19 10 6 20 12

ICT

Broadband 21 19 6 6 23 12

EE 83 19 7 6 21 12

EE in Buildings

35 19 3 6 20 12

District heating

34 19 4 6 17 12

Grid efficiency

14 19 2 6 21 12

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Findings

Large variation in revenue generation occurs across projects within the same sector or subsector

Factors affecting revenue generation capacity:

RDIfield of application proximity to market institutional set up

Broadbandpopulation density of the area intensity of the regulatory framework

Energy efficiencyproject sizeproject type energy prices

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Findings

The calculated flat rates are in line with estimated trends of market profitability in the different sectors

ROA Conditional average

2007-2012 (%)

ROA % change 2007-2012

RDI 7.2 -38.9

Research 0.5 -125.9

Innovation 8.3 -9.5

ICT 9.0 -27.54

Broadband 6.42 -0.07

ICT services 9.15 -12.90

EE 5.80 -66.45

Energy efficiency in buildings 4.33 -75.29

Energy efficiency in generation/ storage/ transmission/ distribution

systems 7.22 -53.42

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Conclusions

Suggested flat-rate revenue percentages:

RDI: 20%

•challenges exist in defining project types according to an agreed classification system

•projects can encompass multiple activities that include several

•from the beneficiaries’ perspective, a unique flat rate for the sector might have greater legal certainty when applying for co-financing

•the volatility of revenues is not reduced when the analysis is narrowed down to the sub-sector level.

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Conclusions

Suggested flat-rate revenue percentages:

Broadband: No Flat Rate

•large variations in financial profitability both across and within countries mainly based on population density

•given the limited data available further disaggregation of the sample is not possible.

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Conclusions

Suggested flat-rate revenue percentages:

Energy Efficiency: No Flat Rate

•a unique flat rate for the sector as a whole may be seen as too risky by the MAs, which may not be able to finance projects in certain sub-sectors (e.g. district heating) to the level needed to make them viable

•Large variations in revenue-generation are, however, reported at the sub-sector level too so that further disaggregation of the rate would not solve the issue and would encounter accountability problems in terms of the size, homogeneity and geographical coverage of the sample.

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These conclusions shall be considered as preliminary and subject to further adjustment on the basis of:

•Possible additional collection of historical data

•Policy argumentations

Also, it is suggested to re-examine the adoption of flat-rates in the ICT and EE sectors at a later stage of implementation of ERDF OPs 2014-2020.

Conclusions