EIF becomes a cornerstone investor in The Golden Mouse Partnership

The European Investment Fund (EIF) has signed a commitment to become a cornerstone investor in The Golden Mouse Partnership, an early stage venture capital fund focusing primarily on the sectors of internet and telecommunication. The EIF has committed EUR 5m to this new EUR 15m fund. Banca Arner and Value Partners sponsor The Golden Mouse Partnership. Other major shareholders include Telecom Italia and Banca Popolare dell' Emilia Romagna.

The Fund will take participations in start-up companies, preferably in the fields of telecommunication infrastructure (niche technology providers), telecommunication service providers and companies active in the media and content industry. The fund manager intends to invest primarily in Italy.

This is the 15th operation concluded by the EIF in support of the Italian market, bringing the total amount of EIF investments focusing primarily on Italy to approximately EUR 262m.

Commenting on this operation, the EIF Chief Executive Walter Cernoia underlined that in investing one third of the total fund size of The Golden Mouse Partnership, the EIF is giving a strong signal to the market as to its continuous support to venture capital players promoting the development of frontier technologies in Italy and throughout Europe.

The EIF is the European Union's specialised financial institution for Venture Capital and SME Guarantees. Based in Luxembourg, the EIF was established in 1994 as a joint venture between the European Investment Bank (which has become its majority shareholder), the European Commission and a number of European banks and financial institutions.

The EIF is now a major player in the European Venture Capital market. It has invested in some 150 funds all over the EU as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. Its Venture Capital portfolio exceeds EUR 2.0 billion and it has invested during 2001 in 57 new funds for an overall amount of EUR 800 million. The investment strategy of the EIF focuses essentially on the promotion of European technology through investments in venture capital funds located in the Union and the Accession Countries.

EIF guarantee instruments facilitate access to debt finance for SMEs through the intermediation by a wide range of banks and financial institutions. The latter are allowed to allocate capital to those operations at a rate of 20% in accordance with EIF's status as a Multilateral Development Bank under the European Solvency Ratio Directive.