GLASGOW-based private equity house Maven Capital Partners has won the mandate to run a £20 million fund aimed at small and medium-sized businesses in Greater Manchester.
The mandate win was revealed by Bill Nixon, managing partner of Maven, which already runs the taxpayer-backed Scottish Loan Fund.
Mr Nixon said that Maven would be making three new hires in its Manchester office to deliver the management of the Greater Manchester Loan Fund. It had, he noted, signed the agreement to manage the fund this week.
This latest mandate will help take Maven's funds under management to about £320 million.
When Maven was formed in 2009, through a management buy-out of the private equity operations of Aberdeen Asset Management, it ran funds of about £140m.
Mr Nixon said that Maven's workforce would shortly be approaching 45.
At the time of the 2009 buy-out, which was led by Mr Nixon, Maven had about 20 employees.
Mr Nixon said that the Greater Manchester Loan Fund had been set up by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities.
This group comprises 10 local authorities, including Manchester City Council.
Mr Nixon said: "We were in a tender process against a number of other fund managers and were selected as the fund manager."
Management of the Greater Manchester Loan Fund will be overseen by Maven investment director Ryan Bevington.
Mr Nixon said that Maven had recruited Andy Thomas, a corporate banker with Royal Bank of Scotland, as an investment director.
Mr Thomas, who is due to join Maven at the start of August, will work on the Greater Manchester Loan Fund.
This loan fund will be invested over a period of five years, Mr Nixon said, providing debt finance in the region of £500,000 to £750,000 to established businesses in the Greater Manchester area.
Describing the firms to which this fund would provide finance, Mr Nixon said: "It will be mostly companies that can't raise conventional senior debt.
"It is slightly higher risk but higher return – a micro-model of the Scottish Loan Fund if you like."
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