EIF guarantee for EVP II

European Venture Partners (EVP), Europe's leading provider of Venture Leasing products, today announced the closing of EVP II, a Euro 105 million Venture Leasing Leveraged Company. EVP II will utilize a reinvestment facility to enable total investments of more than Euro 400 million over the next 6 years.

This path-breaking transaction constitutes an innovative marriage of structured finance and credit derivative technologies with the venture capital market. EVP II is being sponsored by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the capital raising process has been led by Deutsche Bank.

EVP II is structured with multiple debt and equity tranches which will enable through a re-investment facility funding of an expected ¬400 mm portfolio of venture leases. The ¬70 mm of debt is partially guaranteed by the European Investment Fund (EIF). The debt is divided into Senior and Mezzanine tranches. The senior tranche consists of EIF-guaranteed and non-guaranteed tranches. The Mezzanine tranche in similar fashion consists of a tranche guaranteed by the EIF and a tranche without a guarantee.

This deal accomplished several firsts:

• It is the first application of Islamic Finance to venture capital debt, as a portion of the deal was specially designed to meet shariah eligibility criteria;
• It is the first application of CDO technology to a single fund in the Private Equity market;
• It is the first alternative asset CDO to be placed in the capital markets entirely without any rating agencies;
• It has a unique reinvestment facility allowing for a large overcommitment versus capital raised.

EVP was established in 1998 by the originators of Venture Leasing in the USA, Dominion Ventures. Since inception, EVP has become one of the market leaders in Venture Leasing throughout Europe. In that time, EVP I (the first European Venture Leasing Fund) has committed more than Euro 155 Million to some 70 high technology companies across 10 countries.

"The European Investment Fund and Deutsche Bank are both first class partners that will help EVP expand its already leading franchise position in Europe," said the management team of EVP. "This partnership establishes a powerful platform for our aggressive plans to support Europe's leading Venture Capital funds with debt facilities for Venture backed, early stage companies into the future. EVP and young companies in Europe will benefit from employing Deutsche Bank's superb intellectual capital and EIF's unique expertise in this transaction.

Mr. Tappi, Head of Guarantees & Securitisation at the European Investment Fund says EVP is a unique player in the European market and will help to improve the financing mix for entrepreneurs and Venture Capital funds operating in the region by making available complementary Venture Leasing financing for early-stage high growth technology companies. Through EVP, the EIF is continuing to support the creation, growth and development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, at the same time introducing a new asset class in the securitisation market. With this milestone transaction EIF for the first time supports a pan-European securitisation using its expertise in both structured finance and venture capital.

This transaction is an important step in the resurgence of the European Venture Capital market and will bolster the growth of entrepreneurship in Europe., said Jeffrey D'Souza, Managing Director of Deutsche Bank's Alternative Assets Solutions Group. Deutsche Bank will continue to lead in bringing innovation to bear on the private equity and venture capital markets.

About European Venture Partners

EVP I was formed in 1998 as Europe's first Venture Debt provider in order to expand the financing alternatives of the maturing Venture Capital market. EVP II will build upon the success of EVP I and again focus on providing asset-backed venture leases across Europe.

Venture Leasing is a combination of traditional leasing and venture capital and has been devised to specifically address the fixed asset financing debt needs of innovative early stage companies. These facilities enable both entrepreneurs and Venture Capital investors to leverage a company's initial equity at a time when traditional debt finance is simply not available. This leverage allows the entrepreneurs to stretch their equity through the critical early stages of their life cycle whilst also enabling the venture capitalists to commit less capital at the outset without adversely impacting on the company's development plans.

About European Investment Fund's Guarantee Team

The European Investment Fund is the European Union's Financial Institution specialised in guarantees for SMEs and venture capital. EIF is a AAA/Aaa/AAA rated institution with a Multilateral Development Bank status. Accordingly, assets guaranteed by EIF are 20% risk-weighted for solvency purposes under the current Basel accord and will enjoy a 0% risk weighting under the proposed Basel II.

The Guarantees Division provides a wide range of guarantee products, particularly through the wrap of securities backed by SME-related financing, an area in which EIF has achieved a unique position as credit enhancement provider in Europe. The total guarantee portfolio of EIF amounts now to about EUR 6.5bn.

About Deutsche Bank

With roughly Euro 849 billion in assets and approximately 65,700 employees, Deutsche Bank offers unparalleled financial services in 74 countries throughout the world. Deutsche Bank competes to be the leading global provider of financial solutions for demanding clients creating exceptional value for its shareholders and people.

Deutsche Bank ranks among the global leaders in corporate banking and securities, transaction banking, asset management, and private wealth management, and has a significant private & business banking franchise in Germany and other selected countries in Continental Europe.

http://www.deutsche-bank.com

Contacts:

European Venture Partners
Ross Ahlgren, +44 777 570 1536 ross@evp.co.uk
Maurizio PetitBon, +44 777 183 8031 maurizio@evp.co.uk

OR European Investment Fund
Marc Schublin, Head of Division, Policy and Institutional Coordination/Advisory Services, m.schublin@eif.org, +352-42 66 88-315
Alessandro Tappi, a.tappi@eif.org, +352-42 66 88 - 1

OR Deutsche Bank
Stephanie Smart, Press and Media Relations, stephanie.smart@db.com, +44 20 7545 2908