A Glasgow company is poised to become the first to benefit from an investment by UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson's Capital for Enterprise fund, The Herald has learned.

A Glasgow company is poised to become the first to benefit from an investment by UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson's Capital for Enterprise fund, The Herald has learned.

This impending investment in the company is being made through private equity firm Maven Capital Partners, which told The Herald yesterday that it would have the mandate to invest £30m of the £75m Capital for Enterprise fund.

Maven managing partner Bill Nixon did not identify the Glasgow company which was set to receive the investment. However, he revealed the deal was close to being finalised and highlighted the likelihood it would be the first Capital for Enterprise deal anywhere in the UK.

The £30m of Capital for Enterprise funds being run by Glasgow-based Maven, which was formed last month by the management buy-out of Aberdeen Asset Management's private equity business, will be invested in companies anywhere in the UK north of Birmingham, including Northern Ireland.

The mandate for this portion of the Capital for Enterprise fund was won by the Aberdeen Asset private equity unit before this division's senior executives concluded their buy-out to form Maven. The mandate was awarded after a "beauty parade" involving fund management outfits from throughout the UK Since concluding their buy-out of the Aberdeen Asset private equity business, Maven's executives have agreed with the government that the Capital for Enterprise mandate can follow them across to their new venture.

As well as the impending investment in the Glasgow company, Nixon said Maven was doing due diligence on several other deals for the Capital for Enterprise fund.

Nixon said the fund had been formed by Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) "to invest in over-geared private companies or companies that couldn't raise bank debt to expand". Nixon and his team emphasised that the fund was aimed at fundamentally sound businesses which require extra sources of finance because of the global financial crisis and its knock-on impact on the banking sector.

Andrew Craig, who works out of Maven's Glasgow and Manchester offices and was with Bank of Scotland's integrated finance unit before joining Aberdeen Asset, will run Maven's portion of the Capital for Enterprise fund.

London-based private equity outfit Octopus has been awarded the mandate to invest £30m of the Capital for Enterprise fund south of Birmingham. Nixon said the other £15m was being held by BERR for direct investment in companies or for other fund managers to make a pitch for opportunities which they had identified.

Maven manages about £160m for some 9000 private investors.

The management buy-out which formed Maven was funded by Aberdeen Asset through a "vendor finance" arrangement. The price was not disclosed. Aberdeen Asset has retained a significant minority stake in the business, believed to be in the region of 25%.

Twenty-five people, about a dozen of them in Glasgow, moved from Aberdeen Asset to Maven as a result of the buy-out. This workforce comprises deal-makers and back-office staff.

Maven incorporates the private equity business of former Glasgow-based fund manager Murray Johnstone and the old Clydesdale Bank Private Equity unit, as well as Aberdeen Asset's other longstanding operations in this sector.

It has investment teams based in Aberdeen, Manchester, Birmingham, and London, as well as in Glasgow.

Nixon undertook the buy-out along with Craig, Aberdeen oil and gas veteran Jock Gardiner, Moldovan national and former broker Stella Panu, Midlands and south-east of England deal team manager Andrew Ferguson, and Bill Kennedy, a chartered accountant who worked for Murray Johnstone and manages the back-office function.

Maven runs seven venture capital trusts and several other funds.