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The reconstruction fund that BlackRock and JP Morgan are setting up for the Ukrainian government will be "ready to take action" this year, Reuters reported, citing BlackRock Vice-Chairman Philipp Hildebrand.
"We want to be ready to deploy with at least soft commitments from donor countries," Hildebrand told the news agency on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum conference in Davos.
The news report didn't say exactly what "take action" could mean, but it cited Hildebrand as saying that risk would need to be lowered before the mobilization of BlackRock assets. "Take action" appeared to be a paraphrase and not necessarily a direct quote from Hildebrand.
In late November of last year, Marc Bubeck, BlackRock's head of Corporate Communications for Continental Europe, told Ukraine Rebuild News that the Ukraine Development Fund (will seek between $500 million and $1 billion of "catalytic capital" as a step toward attracting $2 billion to $4 billion in commercial capital.
The fund, which is being created pro-bono for the Ukrainian government by BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory team with help from JPMorgan, McKinsey and others, would then deploy the money toward reconstruction projects after the fighting stops.
