FWB helps BGF appoint a Regional Director for Scotland ....

The Business Growth Fund (BGF), established to help Britain's fast growing smaller and medium sized businesses announced that it has made a significant appointment in Scotland with Simon Munro joining their Edinburgh office as Regional Director for Scotland.

 

Simon will lead a team with a mandate to identify fast growing Scottish businesses that would benefit from BGF growth capital, execute these investments and work alongside management teams post-investment as a board member and partner investor.  Simon will also sit on the BGF's national investment committee.

 

Simon's appointment closely follows the appointment of local Investment Director, Duncan Macrae, also handled by FWB.  The team will continue to grow and is indicative of the fund's commitment to the region.  In August the BGF also announced the appointment of well known Scottish businesswoman, Audrey Baxter, CEO of Baxters Food Group, as a Non Executive Director.

 

Simon has 20 years' experience advising and investing in companies, predominantly in the oil and gas industry.  He spent eight years with RMD Corporate Finance before leaving as part of a team of five to establish the European office of Simmons & Company International, the boutique energy investment bank.  He then spent a year in Hong Kong in JPMorgan's Oil & Gas Industry Team.  In 2002, Simon joined Lime Rock, the specialist energy private equity firm, to help establish its presence in Europe.

 

With nearly 300,000 private enterprises employing two million people, Scotland is well placed to see the private sector drive growth out of recession.  99% of those 200,000 private businesses are small and medium sized enterprises which in turn account for nearly 53% of Scottish employment.

 

Simon Munro, Regional Director for Scotland, commented:

 

"I am absolutely delighted to be joining the Business Growth Fund.  Small Scottish companies with annual turnover in the £5m to £50m range have in recent years struggled to attract the capital they need to invest and grow.  Being part of a substantial fund, specifically designed to address that funding gap, is a very exciting prospect.  With my background of investing in oil and gas, I am keen to quickly establish the fund as a supporter of the sector.  Further recruitment to provide the presence which we will need to work closely with companies in the oil and gas industry is a key part of the plan.  Through our team in Edinburgh we already have healthy deal flow and are active on a number of very interesting opportunities.  My sense is that there are many high quality businesses in Scotland which have real potential but which have fallen through the funding cracks.  Those are the businesses which we are here to support."

 

Simon is the fourth regional director to join the BGF.  It comes at a time of rapid growth for the fund, which now has five offices across the UK and a national headcount of nearly 60 people.  Earlier this month, it announced the appointment of Regional Directors for the North of England and Northern Ireland and for London and the South East.  The BGF is in advanced conversations with a number of companies and expects to announce its first investments in the near future.

 

BGF CEO, Stephen Welton, commented:

 

"The Scottish market is an important one to us.  Now that Simon is in place we will be even more actively talking to local businesses and advisers about what we can offer.  We are seeing a strong pipeline of opportunities which demonstrates growing nationwide demand from smaller and medium sized businesses for patient capital and a partnership approach to investment.  We believe we can bring a lot to the table over and above finance and we would urge Scottish businesses to come and talk to us."

 

 

 

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