- Banque Populaire Alsace Lorraine Champagne (BPALC) is providing a €1 million loan to CIMULEC Groupe, a Moselle-based small enterprise specialising in printed circuit boards for the aeronautics, defence and space sectors.
- This is the first loan in France under the €300 million financing package provided by the EIB to Groupe BPCE to facilitate access to finance for small and medium businesses in the defence sector.
This €1 million loan, provided over a period of seven years, is intended to finance the working capital needs of CIMULEC Groupe. It will enable the group to meet strong demand from the defence sector, aimed in particular at stepping up the pace of the Rafale programme until 2030.
CIMULEC Groupe is an industrial player specialising in the production of high value-added printed circuit boards (PCBs) for strategic sectors such as aeronautics, defence and space. This small enterprise has three industrial sites in France and its customers include major French contractors such as Thales, Safran and Airbus Defence and Space, which use printed circuit boards in embedded software, telecommunications satellites and military equipment. With 220 employees and an annual turnover of €28 million, CIMULEC Groupe deploys its expertise at three industrial sites to cover all complex multilayer PCB technologies, from prototype to serial production.
“To satisfy strong business growth and meet the sizeable increase in demand from our customers, the loan granted by BPALC, with the backing of the EIB, shows our partner’s determination after the political announcements of 2025 to support the development of the defence industry. This is a strong endorsement of the skills and expertise of our teams and our group,” said CIMULEC Groupe CEO Laurent Bodin.
“This loan illustrates our commitment to financing the competitiveness and innovation of our region’s small and medium businesses in the defence sector. Supporting a renowned key player such as CIMULEC Groupe, which contributes to French technological sovereignty, is at the very heart of what we do as a cooperative bank. This funding, made possible through our collaboration with the EIB, demonstrates our commitment to driving innovation and competitiveness in a strategic sector such as defence, which is vital for our region and our country,” said Banque Populaire Alsace Lorraine Champagne CEO Dominique Garnier.
“The partnership between the EIB and the BPCE banking group for the defence industry is bearing its first fruit. This financing by Banque Populaire Alsace Champagne for CIMULEC, an SME active in aeronautics, defence and space, is a concrete example of support for the defence industrial and technological base, aimed at strengthening the European Union’s strategic autonomy. In 2025, the EIB Group invested 670 million euros in France in projects related to security and defence, of which the partnership with BPCE is an important component,” said EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle, who is responsible for operations in France.
This maiden operation illustrates the commitment of Banque Populaire Alsace Lorraine Champagne to financing companies in the defence sector across the region. Banque Populaire Alsace Lorraine Champagne capitalises on the strength of its regional network with ten business centres dedicated to companies, 60 specialised advisors and experts in the defence sector. It makes available its in-depth, personalised expertise to small and medium businesses active in the nine departments of this region.
For more information on the EIB package agreed in June 2025, with a financing envelope of 300 million euros granted to Groupe BPCE to facilitate access to financing for SMEs in the defence sector, see here.
