Recovery Equity Fund of Funds (Bulgaria)

The Recovery and Resilience Facility is established by Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council, aiming to mitigate the economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic and make European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions.

The objective of REF is to address the market failure related to the access to finance resulting from the COVID-19 crisis by, ultimately, facilitating access to finance to Final Recipients, including Target Recipients and improving funding conditions through the implementation of an equity instrument. Τhe amount available to Applicants through the current CEoI is up to 162 million Euros. The Recovery Equity Fund of Funds of Bulgaria will have three distinct windows:

• An Innovation Window aiming at increasing the innovation capacity of companies, as well as accelerating their productivity improvements and the transition to a knowledge economy. The Innovation Window will have an initial budget of up to EUR 67.5m.
• A Growth Window targeting investments for the further development/growth of companies as well as for alleviating the long-lasting negative economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The Growth Window will have an initial budget of up to EUR 67.5m.
• An Infrastructure Window, targeting investments that primarily contribute to climate neutrality and accelerate the green and digital transition in priority sectors in the country. The Infrastructure Window will have an initial budget of up to EUR 27m.

REF’s investment into Financial Intermediaries

• The EIF will implement the REF according to an intermediated model, entailing investments in or alongside selected financial intermediaries and providing equity or quasi-equity investments directly into a fund or a co-investment vehicle (alongside the fund), generally ranking pari-passu (like-risklike-reward) with other investors investing in the same risk class.

Eligible Financial Intermediaries

• This Call for Expression of Interest (“CEoI”) is addressed and restricted to interested parties, including but not limited to, private equity, venture capital funds, infrastructure funds, co-investment schemes, special purpose vehicles in any form that undertake long term risk capital investments in the form of equity, preferred equity, hybrid debt-equity instruments, other type of mezzanine financing, excluding entities targeting buy-out (or replacement capital) intended for asset stripping.
• In order to be considered for REF selection, all Financial Intermediaries, including the managers thereof, shall:
  • represent that they are not in any of the Exclusion Situations, as further described in the relevant Annexes;
  • comply with relevant international and EU standards and legislation, as applicable, on the prevention of money laundering, the fight against terrorism, tax fraud, tax evasion and artificial arrangements aiming at tax avoidance and shall not perform any illegal activities, and
  • not be established in a Non-Compliant Jurisdiction unless the operation is physically implemented in the relevant Non-Compliant Jurisdiction and does not present any indication that it supports actions that contribute to Targeted Activities under the EIB Group NCJ Policy.
  • not be subject to Restrictive Measures.

For more information, visit EIF.