The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) completed 2 tender procedures, which started on January 14, 2007 for selection of IT solution for Portfolio Management/Portfolio Accounting System and General Ledger (Main Accounting System). Both tenders were held in strict conformance with the Law of Azerbaijan Republic on Procurement. The winner of the open tenders for provision of IT solutions to SOFAZ is Thomson Financial Limited.

The decision to seek improvement of software infrastructure was taken with the growing operational scalability of the Fund and the need to place more emphasis on scalable systems, automation of manual processes, management and monitoring of the existing investments.

In addition to local and international public tender announcements, invitations were sent to internationally known software companies providing technology, portfolio management and processing services to the financial industry.

New York based Overture Financial Services LLC, which implements USTDA funded Institutional capacity building project for SOFAZ, assisted the Fund during the tender process.

The Fund received 8 proposals for Portfolio Management/Portfolio Accounting System and 9 proposals for General Ledger (Main Accounting System). The evaluation criteria included 9 parameters both technical and financial.

The implementation of both systems will start after signing the relevant agreements and expected to be completed in 9 month.

Thomson Financial Limited is one of the leading global providers of investment management, bank treasury software products and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation, a provider of value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With annual revenues of US$ 8.7 billion, The Thomson Corporation lists its common shares on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.