Foresight Group has launched a £60m investment fund focusing on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the North West, South Yorkshire and north east Wales.
The group has announced the first close of the Foresight Regional Investment Fund, with capital commitments of £38m.
The fund will invest up to £5m of equity in UK growth SMEs, targeting established, profitable businesses with strong management teams across a broad variety of sectors. It has a flexible investment mandate in terms of deal type, investing in management buyouts, management buy-ins, equity release and growth capital transactions.
Foresight also plans to open a regional office in Manchester during the first quarter of 2016. It reported that the process for recruiting local investment professionals to supplement Foresight's existing 11-strong private equity team is well underway.
Russell Healey, partner and head of private equity at Foresight Group, said: "We are delighted to have attracted a number of new institutional investors to Foresight, reflecting the quality of our team and our track record of successful investment into high growth UK SMEs.
"This fund continues the rollout of Foresight's regional fund strategy to address the current structural gap in the SME funding market."
James Livingston, partner of Foresight Group, added: "The region has a large number of underfunded SMEs, particularly within the engineering and hi-tech manufacturing sectors, creating opportunities for Foresight to support strong management teams in growth companies, create jobs, and deliver commercial returns to investors.
"We are excited to be opening a regional office in the Manchester area and are looking forward to working with local advisers to identify and execute further high-quality investments in the SME market."
Read more at insidermedia.com