Cheshire East Borough Council - Procurement of Fund Management Services_

Tender description

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. This tender process is 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. TENDER TIMETABLE Please see below for the estimated timetable for this tender, please note this is for information only and may be subject to change. Invitation to tender issued: Friday 4th October 2019 Deadline for queries: 5:00pm, Friday 25th October 2019 Tender return deadline: 12:00 noon, Tuesday 5th November 2019 Interviews: W/C 11th November 2019 Notification of intent to award: November 2019 Contract award: December 2019