The Fund Manager will be Small Enterprise Assistance Fund (SEAF).

SEAF, formerly known as CARESBAC, is an international organization which manages small business investment funds in developing countries on a commercially sustainable basis. SEAF is a shareholder and/or manager of 8 for-profit SME venture capital funds in Central and Eastern Europe, and has made over 120 equity investments in the region. The average size of SEAF investments is approximately US$275,000, with an average share participation of 38% of the investee. IFC is an investor in SEAF-Macedonia, and is collaborating with SEAF on other funds. SEAF’s principal funders and investors include IFC, EBRD, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Financierings Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO) of the Netherlands, Baltic American Enterprise Fund (BalAEF), Ford Foundation, and Eurasia Foundation.

There will be a small professional fund management team based in Central Asia. The Head of this team will be Mr. Don Nicholson, the former CEO of Central Asian American Enterprise Fund (CAAEF), a regional equity fund, funded by the US Government. Mr. Nicholson has experience of over 30 years in investing in small enterprises, and was involved in the setup of SEAF. As the CEO of CAAEF for the last few years, based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he brings to the project both technical expertise as well as regional knowledge in running a small equity fund in Central Asia.

The offshore fund will have a total target size of $20 million with an expected life of 10 years, for which IFC is expected to provide $2.5 million in equity.

2.50 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan
Equity	2.50

* These investment figures are indicative

The project involves the formation of and investment in a new regional investment fund, targeted specifically at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central Asia. Equity capital in this region is scarce and SMEs suffer from insufficient technical, training and business expertise. The proposed fund should help to alleviate these constraints. The fund will invest in SMEs across a range of sectors, but with a strong focus on agribusiness and agricultural processing, given the prevalence of these activities in the regional economy. The fund plans to be a minority shareholder, but will be actively involved in management, both directly and through technical assistance.

This is a Financial Intermediary (FI) Type 2 project according to IFC''s environmental review procedure. The Fund will be required to undertake an environmental review of each subproject, and must require all subprojects to be carried out and operated in compliance with applicable host country environmental, health and safety requirements. In addition, all subprojects must be carried out in accordance with IFC safeguard policies and be consistent with IFC’s Exclusion List and for subprojects with total project cost of less than US$500,000, the IFC''s Microfinance Exlusion List. Further, Category A subprojects must meet the applicable World Bank Group environmental health and safety guidelines, and the Fund Manager must obtain IFC clearance prior to making any investment with IFC funds in any Category A subproject. The Fund Manager must participate in environmental training as may be required, develop and operate an environmental management system, and provide an annual environmental performance report.
Location of environmental documents In locally affected community