European Investment Fund signs fund agreement with BaltCap in Latvia.
Date: 22/01/2010
BaltCap Latvia is the first venture capital fund to successfully complete private fund raising under the European Investment Funds (EIF) managed JEREMIE initiatives in Europe, and the first structured private equity fund to be raised in the Baltics since the economic crisis hit the region.
This is only the first of several agreements to be signed with selected financial intermediaries under EIFs managed Latvian JEREMIE holding fund of EUR 91.5m. The total amount of funds, including attracted private co-financing, available to SMEs via equity investments and loans is estimated to reach EUR 154m after all signatures are completed.
Four financial intermediaries have been selected by EIF in Latvia to manage the full allocation of JEREMIE funds. BaltCap Management Latvia has been selected to manage a risk capital fund with a target size of EUR 30m. Imprimatur Capital Baltics has been selected to manage seed and start-up capital funds with a total capital of EUR 20.4m and SEB banka has been chosen to manage a FRS instrument with total available funds of EUR 60m. Swedbank will manage an FRS instrument with total available funds of EUR 44m.
All the abovementioned transactions, apart from BaltCap, are currently under negotiation with legal structuring and fundraising (for equity transactions) in process. Signed contracts are expected to follow during the first quarter 2010, enabling selected intermediaries to start lending and investmenting in SMEs.
About JEREMIE
JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises) is a joint initiative launched by the European Commission (DG Regional Policy) and the European Investment Bank group to improve access to finance for SMEs in the EU within the Structural Funds framework for the period 2007 - 2013. JEREMIE enables the EU Member States and Regions to put money from the structural funds and also national resources into holding funds that can finance SMEs in a flexible and innovative way. Since the products will be provided on a repayment basis, funding will be reinvested and hence more SMEs will benefit from the EU resources.
EIF has currently signed 7 National (Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Bulgaria) and 3 Regional (in France - Languedoc Roussillon, and Italy - Campania and Sicily) Holding Fund agreements.
The new initiative aims at developing and fostering the role of entrepreneurship within the EU in order to meet the objectives of the Lisbon agenda and help structural funds to deliver greater benefits to the market.
Contacts: David Yormesor, tel +352 426 688 346, e-mail inforbd@eif.org