British Business Bank Plc: Audit and Block Management Services

UK-Sheffield: Financial auditing services.


Preliminary Questions
   This notice is for prior information only: No
   This notice aims at reducing time-limits for receipt of tenders: Yes
   This notice is a call for competition: No
         
Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1) Name and addresses:
       British Business Bank
       Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ, United Kingdom
       Tel. +44 2039051462, Email: Procurement@british-business-bank.co.uk
       Contact: Procurement
       Main Address: http://british-business-bank.co.uk/, Address of the buyer profile: www.british-business-bank.co.uk
       NUTS Code: UK
      Specifications and additional documents: As Above
I.2) Joint procurement:
   The contract involves joint procurement: No.
   The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body: No .

I.3) Communication          
   Further information can be obtained from: the above mentioned address    
   Tenders or requests to participate must be sent: to the abovementioned address

I.4) Type of the contracting authority    
   Body governed by public law
I.5) Main activity:    
   Economic and financial affairs

Section II: Object

II.1) Scope of the procurement
   II.1.1) Title: Audit and Block Management Services          
         Reference number: BBI - P-2035          
   II.1.2) Common Procurement Vocabulary:       
      79212100 - Financial auditing services.
   II.1.3) Type of contract: SERVICES
   II.1.4) Short description:
   Overview Prior Information Notice to inform the market of the intention to undertake a procurement exercise for the appointment of Audit and Block Management Services. Introduction The British Business Bank plc (“BBB”) is an economic development bank which is 100% owned and funded by the UK Government. Established on 1 November 2014, the BBB’s mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. BBB brings together expertise and funding to support economic growth by improving the UK’s business finance markets. BBB invests or administers Government funding alongside or through private sector partners and uses targeted guarantees and funding options to encourage more private sector lending and investment. British Business Investments Limited (“BBI”) is part of the BBB’s commercial arm. BBI is a wholly owned subsidiaries of BBB. In support of the delivery of its programmes, BBI are issuing this Prior Information Notice (“PIN”) to inform the market of their intention to undertake a procurement exercise for the appointment of Audit and Block Management Services. Further details about the BBI and the Programmes is available at https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/. Contract Overview BBI will use the Contract to provide Audit and Block Management Services to Conduct audits of prospective investment counterparties to assess their operational suitability for financing facilities (including block discounting or other forms of receivables financing) and submitting comprehensive reports to British Business Investments (BBI) to support BBI’s normal internal due diligence and facility approval process. . Procurement Process The opportunity to participate in the Contract will be published on both Contracts Finder and the Find a Tender Service, with the procurement being conducted via the Delta e-tendering platform, for which registration is free – Enter Details | Delta (delta-esourcing.com). It is the intention of BBI to publish this opportunity in mid to late October and this PIN will be utilised as a means to reduce the timescales associated when conducting the procurement. The Contract will be in place for a period of upto 5 years and will be non-exclusive and non-committal. As such, the values outlined are anticipated only.          
   II.1.5) Estimated total value:       
      Value excluding VAT (give figures only) : 800,000 - GBP
   II.1.6) Information about lots:
      This contract is divided into lots: No          
      Maximum number of lots that may be awarded to one tenderer: Not Provided       
      The contracting authority reserves the right to award contracts combining the following lots or groups of lots: Not Provided

II.2) Lot Description    
   II.2.3) Place of performance:       
      Region Codes:               
         UK - UNITED KINGDOM    
   II.2.4) Description of the procurement:       
      Overview Prior Information Notice to inform the market of the intention to undertake a procurement exercise by which to create a contract for the appointment of Audit & Block Management Services. Introduction The British Business Bank plc (“BBB”) is an economic development bank which is 100% owned and funded by the UK Government. Established on 1 November 2014, the BBB’s mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. BBB invests or administers Government funding alongside or through private sector partners and uses targeted guarantees and funding options to encourage more private sector lending and investment. BBI makes commercial investments into non-bank finance providers (“Delivery Partners”) under the terms of its Investment Programme. The Delivery Partners are contracted to on-lend BBI’s investment capital in the form of loans or qualifying debt products to UK based SMEs. This on-lending activity is facilitated using Block Discounting Agreements, Revolving Credit Facilities (including “Back to Back agreements”), Direct Lending Agreements and other bespoke debt instruments. To administer these products, BBI requires a suitably qualified organisation to Conduct audits of prospective investment counter parties to assess their operational suitability for financing facilities (including block discounting or other forms of receivables financing) and submitting comprehensive reports to British Business Investments (BBI) to support BBI’s normal internal due diligence and facility approval process. This includes: •Advising BBI on breaches of finance and underlying counter party customer agreements and on associated adverse findings or suspicions. •Managing block purchase process including: ensuring that blocks of agreements offered to BBI contain agreements that have been correctly executed with enforceable security and comply with match funding requirements and related financial covenants in relevant facility agreement/s; reporting on and rejecting proposed blocks that fall outside facility-specific parameters (e.g. re. advance rate or margin); arranging for acceptance of satisfactory qualifying blocks of agreements; receipt and storage of customer agreements comprising BBI-purchased blocks and related security documentation; submitting periodic funding requests to BBI based on monthly counterpart forecasts; making payment (pre-funded by BBI) of block purchase prices to investment counter parties; •Collecting in monies on behalf of BBI from investment counter parties; •Monitoring and managing portfolios of purchased agreements including requesting replacements for non-performing agreements; •Operating on BBI’s behalf a client bank account into which funding and repayments will be paid; •Receiving on its behalf all notices and information to be delivered to BBI under facility and security documentation; •Reassignment of purchased agreements to counter parties following repayment of all sums due; •Retaining records of customer agreements comprised in purchased blocks; •Monitoring counter party compliance with obligations under financing facilities (e.g. financial covenants, reporting requirements etc.); •Providing BBI with a suite of monthly and other periodic (including on-demand) reports including but not limited to: copy client bank account statement; reconciliation of the client bank account per delivery partner; statement of capital returns and interest/discount income earned for each delivery partner; report of capital balances at month end per block; report of projected income per block; report of aged analysis or arrears. •On-going monitoring of performance of customer agreements comprising financed blocks, including notification of non-performing agreements and replacement in accordance with relevant facility terms.
   II.2.5) Award Criteria :      
      Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents    
   II.2.6) Estimate value
      Value excluding VAT (give figures only) : 800,000 - GBP       
   II.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system                    
      Duration in months - 60                     
      This contract is subject to renewal : NO        
   II.2.10) Information about variants                 
      Variants will be accepted : NO           
   II.2.11) Information about options                    
      NO           
   II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
      The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds : NO           
   II.2.14) Additional information       
      Not Provided


II.3) Estimated Date of publication       
   25/10/2023            
Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial And Technical Information

III.1) Conditions for participation
   III.1.1) Suitability to pursue the professional activity, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers
      List and brief description of conditions:          
         Not Provided       
   III.1.2) Economic and financial standing       
      List and brief description of selection criteria:       
         Not Provided    
      Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required (if applicable) :          
         Not Provided    
   III.1.3) Technical and professional ability
      List and brief description of selection criteria:       
         Not Provided      
      Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required (if applicable) :          
         Not Provided                  

III.2) Conditions related to the contract    
   III.2.2) Contract performance conditions          
      Not Provided    
      
Section IV: Procedure   

IV.1) Description                
   IV.1.3) Information about a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system             
         The procurement involves the establishment of a framework agreement - Not Provided
         In the case of framework agreements justification for any duration exceeding 4 years:                
            Not Provided    
   IV.1.6) Information about electronic auction
         An electronic auction will be used - NO              
   IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA )
         The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) - YES
IV.2) Administrative information                    
   IV.2.5) Scheduled date for start of award procedures: Not Provided    

Section VI: Complementary Information       
VI.2) Information about electronic workflows                        
VI.3) Additional Information:       
   To view this notice, please click here:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=810664640
GO-2023920-PRO-23999381 TKR-2023920-PRO-23999380        
         
VI.4) Procedures For Appeal
   VI.4.1) Body responsible for appeal procedures:
      
             British Business Bank
       Steel City House, West Street, UK-Sheffield: Financial auditing services., S1 2GQ, United Kingdom
       Tel. +44 2039051462, Email: Procurement@british-business-bank.co.uk    
   VI.4.3) Review procedure
      Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures:                
         Not Provided       

VI.5) Date Of Dispatch Of This Notice: 20/09/2023