BLACK SEA FUND

complete

A private equity fund investing in the Black Sea region. The Fund started operations in 1998, with a focus on Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, FYR Macedonia, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova. Following the Fund’s good performance to date, a capital increase is currently being considered to allow further investment in the current region as well as expansion into FR Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. The Fund will provide much-needed equity capital in the Black Sea region to medium-sized local enterprises and will support joint ventures, thereby facilitating foreign direct investment in the region. The Fund will make available to its portfolio companies a combination of management, financial and technical expertise, which will enable them to expand their operations and produce internationally competitive products on a commercially viable basis. The Fund will be one of the first private equity funds in the region to invest in FR Yugoslavia. The Fund will directly contribute to enhancing the entrepreneurship and efficiency of investee enterprises by providing an active ownership role, strong governance and transfer of know-how to privatised and private companies. The Board of Directors approved the Black Sea Private Equity Fund in December 1997. The Fund is managed by an affiliate of Global Finance, a Greek private equity and venture capital firm. After four years of operations, the Black Sea Fund has successfully invested US$ 40.5 million of its US$ 62 million committed capital. The main investors, among which the Bank, the International Finance Corporation and AIG, are considering increasing their commitment to the Fund by participating in a pro-rata rights issue to bring the total Fund commitment to US$ 100 million. The capital increase will enable the Fund Manager to pursue unfolding opportunities in FR Yugoslavia as well as in its main focus countries. The EBRD will increase its commitment to the Fund by US$ 12.26 million to bring it to a total of US$ 32.26 million. Following the capital increase, the Fund will have a total size of US$ 100 million. The Fund will follow the EBRD's Environmental Procedures for Investment Funds. In implementing these procedures, the Fund will assess potential environmental issues associated with its investments, which are required to comply, at a minimum, with local/national health, safety, environmental and public consultation requirements. None.