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EBRD and IØ Fund to co-finance investment projects
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has created an ECU 20 million facility which will co-finance projects developed by the Investment Fund for Central and Eastern Europe (IØ Fund), an institution sponsored by the Danish government, and Danish investors. The agreement was signed in London today by Jacques de Larosière, President of the EBRD, and Sven Risk‘r, Managing Director of the IØ Fund.
At the signing, Mr de Larosière said: “This project will enable the EBRD to expand its financing operations in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector through a wholesale vehicle, while increasing the IØ Fund’s capacity to make equity and equity-related investment in private enterprises in our countries of operations”.
The EBRD's co-financing will also allow Danish investors to invest in more projects which otherwise would have access to no other funding source. Each financing through the facility will be in a range between ECU 400,000 and ECU 4 million, and will have a maximum term of 10 years. These projects are mainly small to medium-sized joint ventures between Danish industrial investors and local private enterprises in the region.
Since it began operations in 1990, the IØ Fund has been steadily increasing its investments in the region. By the end of 1994, it had committed funds to 106 projects worth DKK 554 million (ECU 76 million), while total investments in these projects amounted to DKK 3.9 billion (ECU 543 million). The IØ Fund is based in Copenhagen and has a representative office in Warsaw.
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