January 31 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) [BUL:BSE], state-owned Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) and the innovation ministry are establishing a pilot investment fund with a planned initial capital of at least 10 million levs ($5.5 million/5.1 million euro) to provide financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), BSE said.
BDB is committing a minimum investment of 2 million levs, which may grow multiple times depending on the outcome of upcoming talks to secure financial commitments from other key institutional investors and international financial institutions, BSE said in a press release on Monday.
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The aim is to support potential initial public offerings of Bulgarian SMEs seeking to raise growth capital through BSE's main regulated market and its Bulgarian Enterprise Accelerator Market (BEAM) market focusing on small and medium businesses.
"The pilot fund also aims to achieve maximum publicity and transparency in the evaluation of investment projects, as well as to develop the capital markets as a financing tool in crisis conditions," BSE noted.
The innovation ministry first announced plans for setting up the investment tool in September 2022.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)