Proof of Concept (POC ) and Design & Creative (D&C) loan funds
Dear Sir or Madam,
This request under the FOI Act is in relation to the Proof of Concept (POC ) and Design & Creative (D&C) loan funds that have been transferred by North East Finance Ltd and NStar Fund Management Ltd to Enterprise Development North East Ltd which is a company that considers One North East to be the ultimate controlling party.
For each fund I would be grateful if you could provide the following:
- Total number of loans made
- Total value of loans made
- Number of loans that have been repaid in full and total value of these repayments
- Number of loans that have been converted and where an equity shareholding has been retained
- Total current value of equity shareholding in businesses based on valuation when loan was converted
- Number of loans that have been closed or written off with no repayment in full or conversion to equity shareholding retained
- Number of businesses that have had formal meetings with fund managers
- Number of businesses that have completed a funding application form
- Number of business applications that have been formally put forward to fund investment panel(s)
- Amount of capital in each fund since transfer of funds to Enterprise Development North East Ltd
- Amount of capital invested since transfer of funds to Enterprise Development North East Ltd
- Number of businesses that have had formal meetings with fund managers since transfer of funds to Enterprise Development North East Ltd
- Number of businesses that have completed a funding application form since transfer of funds to Enterprise Development North East Ltd
- Number of business applications that have been formally put forward to fund investment panel(s) since transfer of funds to Enterprise Development North East Ltd
- Amount of capital remaining
I believe that this information should be readily to hand and look forward to your reply.
Yours Faithfully,
James Burke
James
Please find attached ONE's final response to your FOI request.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks
Jaymes Glew
Legal Secretary
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Meeting arranged with ONE on the 27th January to discuss/clarify/finalise FOI request.
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Awaiting additional documentation to close this FOI request following on from meeting with ONE on the 27th January.
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Additional information received, awaiting final closure meeting before publication.
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Following a meeting on 19th April with ONE a number of clarifications surrounding information provided remain. Further clarification is being sought.
Dear Jaymes Glew,
Further to request by Nicola Barnett via email 10th May 2010 for clarification on FOI requests that are long overdue and not complete:
FOI response 24th December 2009 (based on commitments):
Amount of capital in DCF fund on transfer to EDNE 1st April 2009 - £934,950
Amount of capital invested by EDNE - £795,003
Capital remaining - £148,947
Number of business that have had formal meetings - 72
Number of businesses that have completed an application form since transfer of funds to EDNE - 28
Number of business applications formally put forward to Investment Panel since transfer of funds to EDNE - 21
FOI response provided 22nd February 2010 (http://www.scribd.com/doc/31191153/DCF-2... and http://www.scribd.com/doc/31191174/POC-a...
Amount of capital in DCF fund on transfer to EDNE 1st April 2009 - £750,300
Amount of capital invested by EDNE - £750,300
Capital remaining - £0
Number of business that have had formal meetings - unknown
Number of businesses that have completed an application form since transfer of funds to EDNE - unknown
Number of business applications formally put forward to Investment Panel since transfer of funds to EDNE - unknown
FOI response provided 15 March 2010:
"For the avoidance of doubt I enclose a DCF table below that shows the actual cash payments only and not commitments. Please note that there has also been am amount set aside for the pilot Difference Engine programme.
March 2009 - £1,327.500
December 2009 - £1,082,000
2010 - £215,000
Balance for Difference Engine - £175,500 to be spent during 2010"
Please clarify the discrepancies in the above financial figures (3 differing FOI responses) in a clear and unambiguous manner.
Please clarify the numbers relating to meetings and applications and also clarify why numbers were known in December 2009 and were subsequently not known on the 22nd February 2010.
Yours sincerely,
James Burke
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Copy of reply (provided to this FOI by mistake - http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/su...)
Nicola Barnett
One North East
11 May 2010
James
Thank you for your email.
I refer you to our letter of 15 March 2010 (specifically paragraph 3),
which directly addresses the questions you have raised.
I repeat the substance of that paragraph below for your benefit.
The initial response dated 24/12/09 stated that there was £943,950 left
to be invested from the Fund on transfer to EDNE on 1 April 2009. This
was based on a total Fund size of £2,653,650 with £1,709,700 `invested'.
In the response dated 15 March 2010, total investments on transfer to EDNE
were stated as £1,327,500. The difference between these figures is that
the £1,709,700 is the amount signed up as investments, but includes
amounts not released at that date. The £1,327,500 reflects cash
actually released for investments from the DCF bank account. Therefore
as at the date of transfer, there was an amount of £382,200 that had been
signed up as an investment (i.e. committed) but the cash was not
physically released.
Similarly the £795,003 (24/12/09 response) relates to new investments
signed up by EDNE, whereas the £1,082,000 and £215,000 referred to in
the 15 March response are the cash amounts released by EDNE.
The response that the Fund Manager prepared was based on amounts committed
in investment agreements, and the Agency response focused on cash
released.
Regarding the number of meetings and related information, the responses
reflected the difference between information held internally at One North
East and information held externally by the Fund.
Having restated our response to your repeat clarifications, we now
consider this matter - and the outstanding related FOI requests - to be
closed.
Kind regards
Nicola
Dear Jaymes Glew,
The aim of this note is to provide a summary of the responses to this FOI request.
The responses provided by the Design and Creative Fund (DCF) Fund Manager regarding formal meetings with businesses, completed application forms and applications put forward to investment panel meetings is stated as “unknown” and therefore complete FOI responses/clarifications are unavailable. The DCF Fund Manager, Jon Bradford, was awarded the Difference Engine Project Management services contract on the 19th November 2009 following a tender process carried out by the North East Business Innovation Centre (BIC) for the provision of Project Management services for the Difference Engine programme that appears to have been carried out in breach of the ONE North East Single Programme and European Funding Procurement Handbook guidelines and which appears to be eligible for “clawback” of £134,000 (see http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/su...).
The actual amounts of funds, allocated from the DCF, a fund Managed by EDNE Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of One North East) to the Difference Engine Programme (see http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/th...) remains unclear and the apparent procurement irregularities and several perceived conflicts of interest, appears to remain unaddressed by One North East.
As a Section 14(1) refusal notice has been issued and upheld following an internal review by One North East (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/su...) it appears that I am unable to seek further clarifications.
Yours sincerely,
James Burke
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Holding statement supplied by One North East as reply to this request: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/di...