INVEGA signs Letter of Intent for the establishment of the second Initiative Investment Fund at the Three Seas Initiative Business Forum

On 11 April, on the sidelines of the Three Seas Initiative Business Forum in Vilnius, the national development institution Investicijų ir verslo garantijos (Investment and Business Guarantees or INVEGA), together with representatives of the Polish National Bank – Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), the Romanian Ministry of Finance, the Hungarian Export-Import Bank, and the Slovenian National Bank Slovenska izvozna in razvojna banka (SID), signed a Memorandum of Intent to jointly work on the development of the second Three Seas Initiative Investment Facility (3SIIF II), an initiative aimed at financing infrastructure projects that promote connectivity between countries.

Head of INVEGA Dainius Vilčinskas, who was at the event: ‘The fund will invest in the development of infrastructure in the energy, transport and digitalisation sectors. Such projects promote cooperation between countries and businesses in the Three Seas region, facilitate the movement of goods and services, and directly contribute to business development and economic development throughout the region and its member countries. The first fund is currently exploring the possibility of making a number of investments in Lithuania’.

The Three Seas Initiative, established in 2015, aims to strengthen regional cooperation between the Eastern European countries of the European Union. In 2018, the Three Seas Initiative opened the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund (3SIIF), the first fund dedicated to infrastructure projects. Lithuania joined the fund in 2020, with INVEGA’s investment of EUR 20 million. The fund finances transport, energy and digital infrastructure projects in the Three Seas area with the aim of improving connectivity, complementing and strengthening the economies, and energy independence of the Three Seas region.

The first fund is worth more than EUR 900 million. Around EUR 800 million has already been invested or committed in major companies with operations across the region, such as renewable energy companies Energy and R.Power, locomotive leasing company Cargounit, port operator BMF Port Burgas and the Green Energy Data Centre.

Building on the good practices of the 3SIIF, the signatories intend to establish a successor fund (second fund) to the 3SIIF, 3SIIF II. The second fund will follow a similar strategy of providing financing for transport, energy and digital infrastructure projects in the Three Seas region, and will aim to invest in a geographically diversified portfolio across the countries of the Three Seas Initiative.

The signatories of the Memorandum of Intent for the establishment of the 3SIIF II, signed at the Three Seas Business Forum in Vilnius, plan to contribute at least EUR 155 million to the fund. This amount is expected to increase with the accession of the other institutions of the Three Seas Initiative countries.

Particular emphasis will be placed on attracting additional investors such as the European Investment Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as private actors within and outside the EU, to 3SIIF II.

The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is a political platform for cooperation at heads of state level. It involves 12 EU countries located between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.