Samuel R. Berger, George Mu�oz, and George Soros
Launch of Southeast Europe Equity Fund
Press Release, Overseas Private Investment
Corporation
Washington, DC, July 26, 2000
Samuel R. Berger, Assistant to the President for National
Security Affairs,
George Mu�oz, President and CEO of the Overseas Private
Investment
Corporation (OPIC), and George Soros, organizer of Soros
Private Funds
Management (SPFM), today launched the Southeast Europe
Equity Fund, a
$150 million fund to provide new business development,
expansion,
restructuring, and privatization in the region.
At a ceremony in the Old Executive Office Building at the
White House
marking the one-year anniversary of the Stability Pact for
Southeast Europe,
Mu�oz and Soros signed an agreement on basic terms under
which SPFM is
prepared to manage, and OPIC is prepared to provide
financing for, the
fund.
"A year ago, after NATO won the war in Kosovo, more than 40
leaders
came together in Sarajevo determined to win the peace,"
Berger said. "With
the Stability Pact Summit, we launched a new partnership
between
Southeast Europe and the international community to reverse
the habits of
history, de-Balkanize the Balkans and work toward a peaceful
and stable
region. We made clear that the nations of Southeast Europe
must undertake
reforms to attract investment, and that they must work
together. Our efforts
are working."
Berger noted that economic growth is accelerating throughout
the region and
that the OPIC fund is one of a number of steps the United
States has taken
over the past year to promote trade, investment, and
economic growth in
Southeast Europe, as promised by President Clinton at the
Stability Pact
Summit Pact last July. Berger said the United States will
continue to
provide strong support, particularly for initiatives to
strengthen democracy
and create sustainable economic growth.
Mu�oz said, "I am pleased that we are taking another
significant step in
demonstrating that Southeast Europe is an important region
on which we
should focus our efforts, to enable it to rebuild and enter
the global
marketplace as a full partner. The Southeast Europe Equity
Fund is an ideal
vehicle to connect American institutional capital with
European
entrepreneurs eager to help Americans tap their growing
markets. OPIC is
pleased that Soros Private Funds Management has chosen to
send a strong,
positive signal that Southeast Europe is open for business."
Soros said, "After all the horror and destruction wrought by
the Milosevic
regime, the United States and the European Union are deeply
committed to
ensuring a better future for the region. This creates
investment opportunities
and private investment in turn can make an important
contribution to the
region. OPIC is rendering a real service by providing
financing for this fund
and I am happy to put my money where they are putting
theirs."
Congressman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY), Chairman of the House
International Relations Committee, said, "I am very pleased
that this new
fund of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation will be
able to play a
key role in mobilizing private sector support for the future
development of
Southeast Europe. The Fund's creation is as much a
recognition of the
importance of this region's vibrant new markets for U.S.
products as it is a
reflection of our long-term support to its emerging market
economies. With
the financial commitments of the Fund's management team
already in place,
it should quickly be able to raise the capital needed to
promote those
projects demonstrating the best corporate governance
practices."
The fund will serve Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Croatia,
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania,
Slovenia,
Montenegro, and Turkey -- an emerging consumer market of 112
million
people. Its primary purpose will be to provide capital for
new business
development, expansion, restructuring, and privatization.
Soros Private Funds Management was selected as fund manager
by the
OPIC Board of Directors in June, concluding a transparent,
seven-month
selection process by OPIC management. A Soros affiliate will
commit $50
million in private equity, while OPIC will commit to provide
a $100
million loan guaranty. Interests in the fund will not be
offered to the public.
OPIC currently provides more than $65 million in financing
and insurance
for projects in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. Other
OPIC-supported funds
have invested more than $30 million in the region.
"OPIC has taken a leadership role in responding to the
Clinton
Administration's Southeast Europe initiative to stabilize
and integrate the
countries of southeast Europe into the transatlantic
community," Mu�*oz
said. "OPIC opened a southeast Europe regional office in
Zagreb last
February, to serve as a focal point for establishing potenti
al joint venture
partnerships between U.S. and regional businesses. We will
continue to
support and encourage U.S. investment in the region."
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