Invitation To Tender for Provision of Consultancy Services to Undertake a Mid-Term Review of
the English JEREMIE Funds, June 2013
Cumulative List of Responses to Bidders’ Questions
Version 1: Questions Received to 19 June 2013; Responses Published on 24 June 2013
Q
Question
Response
1.
From Specification point 5: Objectives of
review - bullet 1: Tracking of regeneration
results – what are the regeneration
targets? And how are the funds supposed
to track progress (as set out in their
Management Agreement)?
Each fund has targets relating to the
economic regeneration-related
impacts of their investments, including
the numbers of jobs which are created
as a result of the investments and the
number of jobs safeguarded.
Q Date
A Date
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The ERDF has published criteria
which must be satisfied to evidence
achievement of regeneration targets,
which will be provided to the
successful bidder. The sub-fund
managers are responsible for
collecting and evidencing the outputs
which they claim; the holding funds
collate performance across their
portfolios and report progress against
targets contained in their funding
agreements with the ERDF.
2.
Can we be pointed to or get detail of the
Operational Programme (its strategic
focus and policy objectives, cross cutting
themes) under which these funds have
been funded?
The three separate geographic
regions which the three JEREMIE
holding funds serve each have their
own, separate ERDF Operational
Programme. These can be accessed
by following the link on page 16 of the
ITT under the heading: “Information on
EU structural funds programmes
available at:”. The relevant
Operational Programmes are:
- North East Competitiveness
and Employment Programme
- North West Competitiveness
and Employment Programme
- Yorkshire and Humber
Competitiveness Programme
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3.
Please explain what you mean by Legacy
funds/legacy forecast?
Legacy funds refers to the net, cleared
financial returns on the investments
which will be reinvested in future SME
venture capital funds. These are the
free returns on investments available
once the EIB loans to the holding
funds have been repaid and net of the
contribution from returns to the fund
management fees. The ‘legacy
forecast’ relates to the amount of
legacy funds which were projected to
be achieved when the JEREMIE funds
were established.
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4.
What are the current FEI performance
indicators?
“FEI” refers to Financial Engineering
Instruments – an EU phrase which
encompasses SME finance initiatives
such as the JEREMIE funds.
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Full details of the current FEI
performance indicators will be
provided to the successful bidder but
they include:
- Number of SMEs assisted
- Returns on investments
- Private investment leveraged
by the public-sector
investments
- Jobs created and safeguarded
as a consequence of
investments (i.e. impact on the
payrolls/direct employees of
the investee companies).
5.
In the next bullet where you talk about
JEREMIE impact on the ‘market’ – is this
the funding market specifically for
SMEs?(i.e banks, VC, VCT, Angel etc etc)
Yes. It also encompasses the wider
ecosystem required for the successful
functioning of the SME funding market
e.g. corporate finance and legal
advisers and other professional
intermediaries – including those which
may act as catalysts for new business
creation such as technology transfer
offices of Universities.
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6.
What are the ‘changes in delivery
structures and policy context since 2010’?
This refers principally to the change of
government in 2010 and the approach
of the Coalition government to dealing
with the consequences of the financial
crisis, national deficit and recession.
This included the abolition of the
Regional Development Agencies,
which had established the JEREMIE
funds. This impacted on the delivery
structures because subsequently the
holding funds had to report separately
to both Capital for Enterprise
(representing the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills) and to
the Department for Communities and
Local Government (as Managing
Authority for the European Regional
Development Fund) rather than to
their respective Regional Development
Agencies.
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7.
What are Local Enterprise Partnership
priorities?
The Local Enterprise Partnerships
were established in 2011 by the
Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills and are voluntary
partnerships between local authorities
and businesses. They help determine
local economic priorities and to direct
economic growth and job creation
activities in their areas. Each
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therefore has its own specific, detailed
priorities, which are set out on their
websites. 11 LEPs cover the areas
which the three JEREMIE funds serve,
as follows:
North East Finance
North East LEP
Tees Valley LEP
Finance Yorkshire
Humber LEP
Leeds City Region LEP
Sheffield City Region LEP
York, North Yorks & East Riding LEP
North West Fund
Cheshire and Warrington LEP
Cumbria LEP
Greater Manchester LEP
Lancashire LEP
Liverpool City Region LEP
8.
What would you term ‘market failure’ within
the programme area – I assume this is lack
of access to SME/start-up funding?
Yes, market failure relates to the
failure of the private finance market to
supply sufficient finance to meet
demand from SMEs / start-up
enterprises.
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9.
Can we have access to local Government
data resources to benchmark on certain
criteria (economic/regeneration) during the
course of the project?
It is unlikely that any data of relevance
to benchmarking which is not already
in the public domain will be supplied.
For example, in relation to economic
regeneration, statistics can be found in
the Publications: Statistics section of
the UK government Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills; for
venture capital, the British Venture
Capital Association website also has
statistics in its ‘research &
publications’ section.
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