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Fund Profile:
Trans-Balkan Bulgaria Fund LLC (TBBF)
Main Offices: 20-22 Zlaten Rog St., Floor 5th,kv. Lozents, Sofia 1407, Bulgaria
Website: http://www.seaf.bg
Email: office@seaf.bg
Fund Manager: Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF) Management LLC
Key Personnel: Magda Kowalska, Director General
Established: 2000
Total Committed Capital: US $7.2 million
Amount Invested: US $3.3 million (46%)
Shareholders:
SEAF Trans-Balkan SME Equity Fund LLC
The Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), via grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Geographic Focus: Bulgaria
Background
CARESBAC-Bulgaria was established by SEAF, with the help of a USAID grant, and by the EBRD to invest in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bulgaria. The Fund is now fully invested and SEAF is pursuing exits for the portfolio companies. Investments are made in combination with a management training and technical assistance component in order to enhance the business performance of the Fund's investments and to help meet its developmental objectives. The Fund actively assists its portfolio companies in implementing appropriate improvements in management techniques and practices, especially relating to financial control, cost accounting, quality control, and marketing. In addition, the Fund Manager's investment officers are actively engaged in implementing business strategy and in following-up with advice rendered by outside experts. Business support programs are sponsored not only by the Fund, but also by other international and local agencies.
Social Mission
The objectives of the Fund are those of the SEAF Trans-Balkan SME Equity Fund LLC: By providing affordable financing to private sector SMEs in underserved markets, the Fund seeks to build the capacity of SMEs to expand production, access new technology, improve competitiveness, reach wider markets, increase profits, and achieve long-term commercial sustainability. By supplementing investments with technical assistance, SEAF aims to help develop business and management skills, improve corporate governance and transparency, and formalize legal structures, business structures, and tax reporting. The development of a vibrant and sustainable SME sector will help to generate new employment, export revenues, and government tax revenues; stimulate economic growth; promote free markets; improve social welfare; and relieve pressure from painful transition processes. The Fund also seeks to provide examples of successful private enterprises to entrepreneurs and investors, help SMEs establish new customer and banking relationships with the formal banking sector, create a culture of equity investment, institutionalize investment methods and structures, and help to develop the country's overall financial sector.
Investment Information
The Fund invests in enterprises engaged in a broad diversity of sectors, with a special emphasis on companies that are export-oriented or brand-oriented, those with strong growth prospects, and those engaged in light manufacturing, distribution, media, and the software and high-tech sectors. The Fund will not invest in enterprises engaged in the following activities: banking, insurance, and financial services; speculative investment activities such as real estate or commodities trading; production or sale of tobacco products or hard alcohol; arms manufacturing or other military-related activities; operation of casinos or other gambling-related activities; operation of abortion clinics; or activities harmful to the environment. The Fund also complies with IFC environmental, health, safety, and social policies, such as the following: The Fund will not make investments in entities engaged in forced labor, harmful child labor, trade in certain regulated wildlife products, production of ozone depleting substances or products containing PCBs, drift net fishing, projects affecting indigenous peoples or containing large resettlement components, and projects that pose serious health risks. The Fund adheres to applicable environmental, indigenous people, involuntary resettlement, cultural property protection, occupational health and safety requirements, and child labor and forced labor laws and regulations of the country in which investments are made. The Fund appoints an Environmental Manager, implements an Environmental Management System, and furnishes an Environmental Performance Report. Investments generally range between a minimum of US $100,000 to US $500,000, with a maximum investment exposure of US $1,000,00, to obtain a significant minority position in the portfolio company, generally between 25% and 49%. The Fund has no stage or co-investment preferences.
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