Istanbul Venture Capital Initiative Supports Darby Fund

Istanbul Venture Capital Initiative (iVCi), Turkey’s dedicated fund of funds and co-investment programme, which is advised by the European Investment Fund (EIF), is supporting the Darby Converging Europe Fund III, targeting Central and South-Eastern Europe, including Turkey, with a EUR 17.5 million commitment. Managed by the Darby Overseas Investments, this Fund achieves a first closing at EUR 140 million with a significant Turkish component.

Richard Pelly, EIF’s Chief Executive, stated: “Darby Overseas Investments is an experienced mezzanine player. iVCi’s commitment will allow Darby to expand its reach in the Turkish market and further consolidate its activities, including strengthening and enlarging its dedicated Turkish team. In addition to iVCi’s commitment, EIF is putting an extra EUR 35 million into this Fund through its Mezzanine Facility for Growth Mandate, thus making our total commitment equal to EUR 52.5 million and marking our continued support to the region.”

This commitment represents iVCi’s seventh investment into funds operating in Turkey accumulating aggregate commitments of EUR 112.5 million and leveraging to date more than EUR 0.5 billion in third party capital into these funds.

About Darby Private Equity

Darby is the private equity arm of Franklin Templeton Investments, and manages a range of private equity, mezzanine, and infrastructure funds in Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. Darby was founded in 1994 by The Honorable Nicholas F. Brady, who served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury between 1988 and 1993. Richard Frank joined the firm as CEO in 1997 after his career at the IFC / World Bank. In 2003 Darby became a fully owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN], a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. For more information, please visit darbyoverseas.com.

Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management solutions managed by its Franklin, Templeton, Mutual Series, Fiduciary Trust, Darby and Bissett investment teams. The San Mateo, CA-based company has more than 60 years of investment experience and over $735 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2011.

About iVCi

Established in November 2007, Istanbul Venture Capital Initiative (iVCi) (www.ivci.com.tr) is Turkey’s first ever dedicated fund of funds and co-investment programme. Total fund commitments amount to EUR 160 million from public and private investors such as Small and Medium Industry Development Organisation of Turkey (KOSGEB), the Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV), the Development Bank of Turkey (TKB), Garanti Bank, the National Bank of Greece Group (NBG Group) and the European Investment Fund (EIF). EIF is the adviser to iVCi.

About Mezzanine Facility for Growth

The Mezzanine Facility for Growth is a EUR 1bn fund-of-funds mandate granted by the European Investment Bank and managed by EIF. It targets hybrid debt/equity funds throughout Europe, with a view to playing a catalytic role in this market segment.  Mezzanine funding is tailored to meet the specific financing requirements of more mature businesses and late stage or expansion technology companies and is well adapted to long term financing.

About EIF

EIF's central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses by helping them to access finance.  EIF designs and develops equity (venture and growth capital), guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. EIF’s equity investments aim to leverage its own funds and those managed on behalf of mandators.

EIF’s total net commitments to private equity funds amounted to over EUR 5.4bn at end 2010. With investments in over 350 funds, EIF is a leading player in European venture due to the scale and the scope of its investments, especially in high-tech and early-stage segments.

• EIF: Joelle Harvey, Communications, j.harvey@eif.org
• iVCi: Sylvain Francois, Fund of Funds Administrator, s.francois@eif.org. 
• Darby: please visit www.franklintempleton.com