Gresham House launches institutional private equity fund

Gresham House has launched a new limited partnership to enable institutional investors to support growth companies in the UK and Ireland.

Gresham House Private Equity Release LP has successfully raised just shy of £60mn, in excess of its original £50mn target, from pension funds, corporate and private investors in the UK and Ireland.

The fund complements our existing investment strategy and broadens our capabilities. It will seek to provide secondary capital into established portfolio companies of Gresham House’s Mobeus and Baronsmead venture capital trusts (VCTs), enabling an immediate and vibrant pipeline of opportunities into which capital can be swiftly deployed. New capital is intended to offer liquidity to founders, legacy shareholders, and angel investors, increasing Gresham House’s overall managed share to support companies as they continue to increase in scale.

It will also have the flexibility to provide secondary, buyout or acquisition capital into new investment opportunities or to co-invest alongside the VCTs into new investment opportunities where there is a requirement for both primary and secondary capital.

Targeting a relatively underserved segment of the vibrant small private company market in the UK and Ireland, the fund will make investments of £1-10mn in 10-15 growing businesses with strong underlying profitability and enterprise values of £10-50mn. Co-managed by Greg Blin and Trevor Hope along with Gresham House’s wider specialist private equity team, it will target a 2.5x money multiple and net IRRs of 20%.

It will also benefit from Gresham House’s existing scale and experience in the venture capital space. Gresham House Ventures is the second largest VCT manager in the UK with around £800mn in assets under management across its Baronsmead and Mobeus VCTs.

The launch builds on Gresham House’s existing offering for institutional investors, which includes funds investing in forestry, real estate, and new energy technologies. It follows the recent launch of the Gresham House Secure Income Renewable Energy & Storage LP, which invests in collocated renewable and battery storage projects in the UK.

Greg Blin, investment partner at Gresham House, said:

“This strategy will bring Gresham House’s wealth of expertise in UK growth companies to a new group of investors and will provide further capital to exciting, high-growth businesses. By taking the innovative approach of investing alongside our fantastic venture capital trusts, we are enabling founders to access greater liquidity, which we know is an acute challenge in the current economic climate, while opening up a diverse range of compelling opportunities to institutional investors.”