Our Partner:
The European Fund for Southeast Europe SA, SICAV-SIF (EFSE), set up for an unlimited duration in 2005, is a closed-ended investment company organised under the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. EFSE qualifies as an alternative investment fund and aims to foster economic development and prosperity in the Southeast Europe region and in the European Eastern Neighbourhood region through the sustainable provision of additional development finance, notably to micro and small enterprises and to private households, via qualified financial institutions.
The Project:
EFSE’s Board of Directors decided that a strategy process should be initiated in 2021 to comprehensively assess the long-term viability of the mission and business model of the Fund. This major strategy process was aiming to appraise the state of EFSE from the perspective of its (1) market orientation, (2) structural set-up, and (3) impact dimension, drawing options and recommendations for EFSE’s future missions and business model. A task force was set up aiming to set out implementation details for the chosen option, including: (a) Institutional set-up, mainly fund capital structure but also including its governance, (b) Expected portfolio compositions including country, target group/sector/products, (c) financial implications including business projections, risk aspects, funding requirement, (d) Impact monitoring and measurement, (e) policies and procedures and (f) institutional KPIs.
Our Tasks:
Broadpeak was hired for the task sorce to support a 18-month strategic process directly but also by mobilising additional experts. Specific tasks included (a) appraising EFSE’s products, partner financial institutions and markets with a view to deriving impact dimensions beyond the existing scope of the fund, (a) reviewing the fund’s existing set-up in Luxembourg and assess a feasibility to transform it within the scope of AIFM, (c) reviewing EFSE’s capital structure and seek feasibility for simplification, (d) engaging and manage external consultants, in accordance with the resource plan included in the Work Plan, (e) collaborating with the Fund’s existing Service Providers while performing its duties, (f) communicating with EFSE’s shareholders to align the Strategy Process with their interest as well as (g) keeping the Board abreast of the progress of the Work Plan and discuss the interim findings and results.
Our Deliverables:
Broadpeak supported the EFSE Board over the course of the process with various decision memos and presentations during regular board meetings and strategic retreats. We designed and drafted recommendations for EFSE’s strategy, reflecting the appraisals made and weighing strengths and weakness of the options considered, illustrating / highlighting potential risks and pitfalls in implementing the recommendations, providing implementations details, steps, and roadmaps.