DUBLIN : The UK body set up to give equity funding to small to medium sized firms – is set to announce its first Northern Ireland investment.
Chief executive Stephen Welton is in Northern Ireland to meet the management team from the company – thought to be based outside Belfast – which has won a significant cash injection from the fund.
The fund, an independent company capitalised by the banks, typically invests between £2m and £10m in firms with turnover of at least £5m.
Mr Welton said the fund had spoken to around “30 or 40” firms in the province about giving them cash in return for equity shares.
“There is no shortage of entrepreneurial businesses in Northern Ireland,” he said.
The province is the last of the UK regions to receive Business Growth Fund backing after it was set up in 2011.
Mr Welton defended its slowness in making an investment here.
We have taken four years to build up a big presence across the UK and that’s a very short period of time.
“What we are thinking about is what we can achieve over a 20 to 25-year period.
“We have had to start by building up confidence and trust and that doesn’t happen overnight.”
Companies in Northern Ireland – which were more dominated by family-run enterprises – also tended to be accustomed to financing through debt and so tended to need to be educated about equity funding.
