Talking Point: Ambition is the only constraint
Andy Gregory, the North West's regional director for the Business Growth Fund, explains how the scheme can help fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses.
The Business Growth Fund (BGF) has been established to help Britain's fast growing smaller and medium sized businesses. With up to £2.5bn of available funds, we provide long-term equity investment for those growing companies that today do not have enough access to this source of capital.
Growth potential is the key criteria, and our investments will be used to fund a wide variety of business plans from simply increasing working capital to making a strategic acquisition, from capex to increase capacity to a step change in sales and marketing, from an export drive to new product development. BGF invests between £2m and £10m in return for a minority stake in a business.
We will invest across all sectors, with the exception of financial services and property, in profitable companies with a turnover between £5m and £100m. Successful entrepreneurs tell us that they want commitment from an investor. As investments are made directly from our balance sheet we are able to take a long term view. They also tell us that they don't want to lose control of their business, which is why we only ever take a minority stake.
We also recognise that to succeed, companies need more than just money: confidence and capabilities are critical too. Alongside our investment we provide practical and strategic support directly through the investment team and wider BGF infrastructure, through non-executive involvement at board level, and through access to our broader networks.
We know that this is a tough environment for any business. But history shows that it is in times such as these that great companies can be built. We need today’s entrepreneurs, and the people advising them, to be asking "what are the opportunities?". Our challenge to the owners and managers of these firms is to tell us what they could do today with new capital and our support. Ambition is the only constraint.
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