Member Article

Business Growth Fund grows team

The Business Growth fund has announced two new major appointments to expand its presence in the North of England and Northern Ireland.

David Colclough joins as investment director, and Neil Inskip joins as investment manager, and both with help to drive investment.

The recruits bring the total BGF team to 50 people, working across six regional offices in the UK.

David Colclough was formerly a Director with 3i with responsibility for the Manchester office and has over 13 years experience of investing in SMEs across the northern region.

Neil was an an investment manager at ANZ Private Equity in Sydney, and formerly located in the North of England with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Since its launch in May, the BGF has scaled its local capabilities to meet its long term objective of offering equity investment to up to 40 businesses a year once fully established.

The organisation makes long-term equity investments to fund a wide variety of requirements, including: increasing working capital, capital to make a strategic acquisition or to grow capacity; delivering a step change in sales and marketing; launching an export drive; or, developing new products.

Investments can be between £2m and £10m in return for a minority equity stake.

David Colclough said: “The current outlook for small and medium sized business is undoubtedly challenging, but BGF has been set up to provide much needed support and long term funding to companies with the ambition to grow.

“I am confident BGF can make a real difference to the northern region and more broadly across the UK, and I am delighted to be joining the team.”

Andy Gregory, BGF Regional Director for the North of England and Northern Ireland, said: “It is great to welcome David and Neil to the team, and to strengthen our presence in this region.

“We are seeing a strong pipeline of opportunities across the region and are keen to put our capital to work so that businesses in this region have access to the finance they need to grow.

“We urge business owners in the North of England and Northern Ireland to act on their growth ambitions and consider how best they can be financed for the future.

“At BGF we believe that equity has always been one of the most effective ways to fund a growing business and as equity investors, with interests aligned with those of business owners, we will work hard to further the growth potential of our investee companies.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .