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European Financing
Partners
EUROPEAN
FINANCING PARTNERS S.A. is a private limited
liability company established under the laws of the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and is owned by 14
shareholders. Its subscribed share capital is
78,600.
The funding
capacity of EFP is provided by the European
Investment Bank (EIB) and by the following 12 EDFI members:
BIO (Belgium),
CDC (United Kingdom), COFIDES (Spain), DEG
(Germany), FINNFUND (Finland), FMO (the
Netherlands), IFU (Denmark), NORFUND (Norway), OeEB
(Austria), PROPARCO (France), Sifem (Switzerland)
and SWEDFUND (Sweden).
The operational
structure of EFP is unique among the institutional
investors, and is characterised by an efficient and
fast track process with low administrative
overheads.
The operation
of EFP is regulated by the Master Investment
Agreement, which delegates full authority for
investment decisions to the Investment Committee,
which is composed of representatives from the
institutions, which have committed funds to EFP.
Secretarial and
accounting services are provided by the EDFI
Secretariat in Brussels, while the statutory tasks
are undertaken by a domiciliation agent in
Luxembourg. The company is audited by
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, appointed by the
shareholders at the AGM, and by an internal audit
committee, appointed by the Board of Directors.
A Promoting
Partner any one of the thirteen EDFI members being
shareholders may present funding proposals for
projects located in the ACP states to the Investment
Committee. Authorised Financial instruments are
Senior Loans, Mezzanine Debt, Equity, Quasi-Equity
and Guarantees.
EFP will fund
up to 75% of the total combined financing of EFP and
the Promoting Partner. The minimum financing from
EFP is 1 mln and the maximum is 25 mln per
project.
The Investment
Committee evaluates project proposals and grants
approval in a two step process, (1) Clearance In
Principle followed by (2) Final Approval.
Once approved, the Investment Committee delegates
authority to the Promoting Partner to undertake due
diligence, establish the legal contracts and monitor
the project company on behalf of EFP.
The investee
company will sign a legal contract with the
Promoting Partner only and will thus communicate and
report only to the Promoting Partner. The Promoting
Partner is responsible for the monitoring and
communication to EFP and the underlying partners
funding the operations.
In May 2009,
EFP was replenished with 230 mln, 100 mln provided
by the EIB and 130 by the EDFI members.
Under its
previous mandate which expired in April 2009, EFP
has approved financing to 25 projects in 11 ACP
countries for a total amount of 280 mln. in the
following sectors: Agribusiness, Banking,
Communication, Health, Hotels, Housing, Industry,
Infrastructure, Power and Air Transport.
An evaluation
of EFP undertaken by the Operations Evaluation
Department of the EIB in 2008/2009 concludes that
the EFP initiative is clearly in line with European
development cooperation polices and with a number of
joint statements on aid harmonisation put forward by
the international community. It has also been a
concrete step forward in implementing the Framework
Agreement on financial co-operation and exchange of
services signed by the European Partners in 2003.
This evaluation has highlighted that, while sharing
the common objectives of EFP, its members
participate with their own institutional agendas:
larger partners focus on financial leverage and risk
sharing while smaller partners focus on the exchange
of experience and best practices. These diverse
strategic objectives are not only coherent with the
objectives of the EFP, but greatly contribute to
achieve them. Through its operation, the EFP has
proved to be an effective and efficient instrument
in strengthening co-operation among partners.
Furthermore, overall the partners feel satisfied
with the experience and provide concrete examples of
reinforced co-operation.
Download:
EFP
Audited Annual Accounts 2008 (100kb)
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