Business Growth Fund to look outside of London

The Business Growth Fund, the £2.5bn private equity fund backed by high-street banks, has appointed a new chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd (read more about Sir Nigel Rudd here).

The Business Growth Fund is likely to be based outside of London, Sir Nigel Rudd has indicated.

When asked by the Telegraph whether this will be the case, Sir Nigel Rudd answered: “I think it would be absolutely on the cards. In terms of symbolism, it would not be a bad idea.”

He also added that the Business Growth Fund will have offices around the UK. “We are certainly going to have Birmingham, one in northern England, Glasgow and Northern Ireland.

“I hope to have within a year, 20 to 30 deals. We don’t need to slosh money around. We have to be selective because we’re running a business, not a charity.”

The Business Growth Fund is backed by high-street banks Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Standard Chartered.

The chief executive of the Business Growth Fund will be Stephen Welton, a partner at CCMP Capital.

Once it starts investing in April, the Business Growth Fund will target businesses with an average turnover of between £10m and £100m that have funding requirements from £2m to £10m.

Some of the key details about the Business Growth Fund are:

• the minimum equity stake in any business would be 10 per cent
• the average duration of the investment is expected to be five years
• the fund would operate through a distribution network of regional offices
• it will be managed by an independent board and chairman

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