Portfolio summary and new business in 2025

DEG promotes economically viable and developmentally sustainable investments by private-sector enterprises that are socially and environmentally sound. The range of financing that it offers includes loans, loans with equity features and equity investments, provided predominantly from own funds. It also offers needs-based advisory services, primarily through its subsidiary DEG Impulse, for which budget funding is also used.

The objective of DEG’s promotional activities is to generate development impact in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda by providing reliable long-term finance and tailored advisory services to private-sector enterprises. This means creating sustainable prospects for people in partner countries and contributing to the lasting success of its customers.

DEG supports Germany’s global agenda on stability and security policy, energy and raw material partnerships, the protection of global goods, and the resilience and competitiveness of the German economy. It provides targeted advice and support to German companies with their investments in developing and emerging market countries, for example in opening up new markets and diversifying and strengthening their supply chains.

On the basis of its development policy mandate and as a member of KfW Group, DEG operates on the principle of subsidiarity. It provides support in areas where the market fails to offer financing to enterprises at an adequate level to satisfy their entrepreneurial needs. To do so, DEG reaches enterprises in developing and emerging-market countries directly and indirectly: It finances companies and private-sector project structures directly as well as making capital available to local banks and other financial intermediaries, enabling them to supply companies on the ground with financing.

In the context of changing international development cooperation and limits to public funding, DEG’s business model is gaining in importance. While some government development budgets around the world have been frozen, DEG acts as a stabilising anchor with its financing offers for private enterprises in developing and emerging-market countries. With its growing portfolio, DEG further expanded its contribution to SDG and climate finance in developing and emerging-market countries in 2025. DEG thus supports the German government’s objectives and is making a significant contribution to the country’s global agenda.

The DEG portfolio grew to EUR 11.7 billion as of year-end 2025 (2024: EUR 11.6 billion), provided from own funds. These funds are used to finance investments of more than 600 private enterprises in over 70 countries. By continent, financing for investments in Latin America accounts for the lion’s share of DEG’s portfolio at EUR 3.5 billion, followed by Asia at EUR 3.1 billion and the Africa/MENA region at EUR 3 billion. The Europe/Caucasus portfolio totals EUR 1.5 billion. A further EUR 0.6 billion relates to supraregional investments.

New business 2025
In 2025, DEG successfully continued its course despite persistently challenging conditions, generating total business volume of EUR 2.9 billion – the majority of which (EUR 2.4 billion) was provided from its own funds. New commitments from own funds were earmarked for 84 investments by private-sector enterprises in emerging markets and developing countries. Commitments for the “Corporates” customer cluster amounted to EUR 895 million in 2025, while those for “Financial Institutions” and “Funds” were EUR 721 million and EUR 442 million, respectively. The “Project Financing” customer cluster received commitments of EUR 293 million. DEG’s focus on investments in climate and environmental protection continued into 2025, with around EUR 1.2 billion newly committed for this purpose. DEG mobilised approximately EUR 607 million from other private, institutional and public investors.