Cheshire East Borough Council - Procurement of Fund Management Services_ - AWARD

As part of a package of programmes to stimulate and drive growth, the LEP in conjunction with Cheshire East Borough Council as the accountable body, has secured £20m of European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) to establish an investment fund called the Cheshire and Warrington Development Fund (CWDF).

The proposed CWDF will be complementary to the Evergreen 1 fund established in 2011 and the Greater Manchester Evergreen 2 fund. The Evergreen 1(EG1) fund was very successful. Cheshire and Warrington received £37m (some of this is still in final assessment) from the fund which is now fully committed.

The tender process was for the procurement of fund management services to deliver the CWDF. As part of the contract, the successful service provider will be required to deliver the following services:

• Manage and market the fund and the entire investment cycle
• Launch the fund
• Market the fund
• Manage all enquires
• Generate applications to the fund
• Secure a minimum of £20m of match funding which can be at a fund or investee level
• Identify, monitor and report co-investment in accordance with Article 1 of the Commission Implementing Regulation (821/2014).
• Work with other funds, funders, and investees, most notably Evergreen 1 to assess the benefit of adding this funding to wider funding packages for projects
• Assess and develop the applications
• Invest the funds
• Carry out financial and commercial due diligence
• Ensure all investments made are state aid compliant
• Issue heads of terms
• Make investment recommendations to the CWDF board
• Issue contracts for investments
• Monitor the investments and ensure repayments are made on time, and if not work with the applicant to take remedial action
• Ensure outputs are achieved and recorded in compliance with ERDF guidelines.

CBRE Indirect Investment Services Ltd were the successful service provider awarded the contract.