OREANDA-NEWS. The International Fund for Russian SMEs (IFORS) was created based on a Memorandum of Understanding, signed on 16th November 2012 by Vnesheconombank and KfW, in the presence of Vladimir Putin, President of Russian Federation and Angela Merkel, the Federal Chancellor of Germnay. The purpose of the Fund is to attract capital to sustainably foster and develop SME business in Russia.

The Fund is designed to facilitate the Russian non-trading SMEs’ access to financial resources, in particular, through attracting long-term foreign investments. IFORS plans to accomplish this mission predominantly through senior lending to financial institutions, who will subsequently lend to non-trading SME clients. To diversify and complete its portfolio, at a later stage the Fund could also invest in direct long-term loans to medium-sized manufacturing and subordinated loans and equity of Russian banks and SMEs.

The purpose of this call for expressions of interest is to develop a list of eligible candidate companies that will be invited to tender a proposal for investment management services for IFORS.

Deadline:  5 August 2013 at 12:00 pm CET.

Investment management companies, at their own discretion, may choose to appoint a junior partner, such as an investment advisor or another partner, to assist in such tasks as the management of the IFORS or the technical assistance facility. Interested companies are invited to submit an expression of interest before the above-mentioned deadline.