NEF Legal Services 2020-2024

North East Finance (Holdco) Limited (referred to as 'North East Finance') is the holding fund manager for the Finance for Business North East ('FBNE') Fund.

FBNE operated through six sub-funds managed by independent fund managers, but lately this has been streamlined. North East Finance has fully repaid European Investment Bank loan and the emphasis is on the generation of a cash legacy from the portfolio to fund future investment programmes in the region.

The contract will cover work for North East Finance and its two subsidiaries North East Finance (Subco) Limited and North East Technology (GP) Limited, each of which hold some of the assets of the FBNE Fund. North East Finance (Subco) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

North East Finance has full autonomy in investment matters. Its parent company North East Access to Finance Limited ('NEA2F') provides professional, administrative and compliance support. The two companies have independent Boards and accountability and have retained separate arrangements for procuring legal services.

We are looking for a legal adviser to support the Chief Executive, the Company Secretary and the Board of North East Finance. This will include ensuring that the companies comply with their legal and regulatory requirements, as well as giving advice on general commercial issues as they arise.

Most of our funds have been supported by the European Regional Development Fund and bidders must demonstrate a clear understanding of the regulatory requirements for ERDF.

Specialist expertise will be necessary in private equity and venture capital, including financial services regulation; Limited Partnership structures and related legal agreements; European structural funding and compliance; State Aid advice relating to publicly funded bodies delivering venture capital funds; procurement, including OJEU and sub-OJEU procurements; other legal and regulatory issues relating to public sector economic interventions.

General commercial advice will also be required on a range of matters.

The contract will be for four years from November 2020.

A full specification with details of the process for applying and the criteria by which the contract will be awarded are in the Invitation to Tender which is on the website www.northeastfinance.org.

Additional information: Page limit is 15 pages of A4.

Please specify the main client contact(s) and how you would manage client relationships. Please also give details of the rest of the proposed team, their roles, experience and track record. Brief CVs of key team members should be included.

Bidders are asked to provide hourly rates for delivering the services. For purposes of comparison, we will look at 'headline rates' for Partners and Associates. We will assume these are fixed for the 4 years unless you state otherwise. You may include rates for other fee-earners but these 'headline rates' will be used for scoring the bids.