ANNEX IV

The OCTs Investment Facility (the Facility) set up by Decision 2001/822/EC with EDF funds to promote commercially viable enterprises shall be maintained. The terms and conditions of financing in relation to the operations of the Facility and the loans from own resources of the EIB shall be as laid down in the Internal Agreement establishing the 11th EDF and in Annex III and in this Annex. These resources may be channelled to eligible enterprises, either directly or indirectly, through eligible investment funds and/or financial intermediaries. 1. The resources of the Facility may be used, inter alia, to: provide risk capital in the form of: equity participation in OCTs enterprises, based or not in an OCTs, including financial institutions; quasi-capital assistance to OCTs enterprises, including financial institutions; guarantees and other credit enhancements which may be used to cover political and other investment-related risks, both for foreign and local investors or lenders; provide ordinary loans. 2. Equity participation shall, in general, be for non-controlling minority holdings and shall be remunerated on the basis of the performance of the project concerned. 3. Quasi-capital assistance may consist of shareholders’ advances, convertible bonds, conditional, subordinated and participating loans or any other similar form of assistance. Such assistance may consist in particular of: conditional loans, the servicing and/or the duration of which shall be linked to the fulfilment of certain conditions with regard to the performance of the project; in the specific case of conditional loans for pre-investment studies or other project-related technical assistance, servicing may be waived if the investment is not carried out; participating loans, the servicing and/or the duration of which shall be linked to the financial return of the project; subordinated loans, which shall be repaid only after other claims have been settled. 4. The remuneration of each operation shall be specified when the loan is made. 5. Without prejudice to paragraph 4: in the case of conditional or participating loans, the remuneration shall normally comprise a fixed interest rate of not more than 3 % and a variable component related to the performance of the project; in the case of subordinated loans, the interest rate shall be market related. 6. Guarantees shall be priced so as to reflect the risks insured and the particular characteristics of the operation. 7. The interest rate of ordinary loans shall comprise a reference rate applied by the EIB for comparable loans with the same terms and conditions as to grace and repayment periods and a mark up determined by the EIB. 8. Ordinary loans may be extended on concessional terms and conditions in the following cases: for infrastructure projects in the least developed OCTs, in post-conflict OCTs or in post-natural disaster OCTs that are prerequisites for private sector development. In such cases, the interest rate of the loan will be reduced by 3 %; for projects which involve restructuring operations in the framework of privatisation or for projects with substantial and clearly demonstrable social or environmental benefits. In such cases, loans may be extended with an interest rate subsidy the amount and form of which will be decided with respect to the particular characteristics of the project. However, the interest rate subsidy shall not be higher than 3 %. 9. The final rate of loans falling under point (a) or (b) of paragraph 8 shall, in any case, never be less than 50 % of the reference rate. 10. The funds to be provided for these concessional purposes will be made available from the Facility and shall not exceed the overall allocation for investment financing by the Facility and by the EIB from its own resources. 11. Interest subsidies may be capitalised or may be used in the form of grants to support project-related technical assistance, particularly for financial institutions in the OCTs. 1. The Facility shall operate in all economic sectors and support investments of private and commercially run public sector entities, including revenue generating economic and technological infrastructure critical for the private sector. The Facility shall: be managed as a revolving fund and aim at being financially sustainable. Its operations shall be on market-related terms and conditions and shall avoid creating distortions on local markets and displacing private sources of finances; support the OCTs financial sector and have a catalytic effect by encouraging the mobilisation of long-term local resources and attracting foreign private investors and lenders to projects in the OCTs; bear part of the risk of the projects it funds, its financial sustainability being ensured through the portfolio as a whole and not from individual operations; seek to channel funds through OCTs institutions and programmes that promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 2. The EIB shall be remunerated for the cost incurred in managing the Facility. The remuneration of the EIB shall include a fixed component of 0,5 % a year of the initial endowment and a variable component of an amount of up to 1,5 % a year of the portfolio of the Facility that is invested in projects in OCTs. The remuneration shall be financed out of the Facility. 3. Upon expiry of this Decision, and in the absence of a specific decision by the Council, the cumulative net reflows to the Facility shall be carried over to the next OCTs Financial Instrument. In order to minimise the effects of exchange rate fluctuations, the problems of exchange rate risk shall be dealt with in the following way: in the case of equity participation designed to strengthen an enterprise’s own funds, the exchange rate risk shall, as a general rule, be borne by the Facility; in the case of risk capital financing for SMEs, the exchange rate risk shall as a general rule be shared, on the one hand, by the Union, and on the other hand, by the other parties involved. On average, the foreign exchange rate risk shall be shared equally; where feasible and appropriate, particularly in countries characterised by macroeconomic and financial stability, the Facility will endeavour to extend loans in local OCTs currencies, thus taking the foreign exchange risk. 1. Investment Facility operations shall be subject to the control and discharge procedure laid down in the Statutes of the EIB for all of its operations. 2. The ECA’s supervision of Investment Facility operations shall be carried out in accordance with the procedures agreed upon between the Commission, the EIB and the ECA, and in particular the Tripartite Agreement between the European Commission, the European Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank of 27 October 2003, as amended, supplemented or modified from time to time. 1. The representatives of the EIB, while they are engaged in activities connected with or in implementation of this Decision, shall enjoy in the OCTs the customary privileges, immunities and facilities while carrying out their duties and while travelling to or from the place at which they are required to carry out such duties. 2. For its official communications and the transmission of all its documents, the EIB shall enjoy in the territory of the OCTs the treatment accorded to international organisations. 3. Official correspondence and other official communications of the EIB shall not be subject to censorship.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-02 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.