Double appointment for £35m fund Chrysalis

Chrysalis, the £35m revolving fund that has supported more than £100m of investment in the Liverpool City Region, has made two senior appointments to its board.

Cllr Ann O’Byrne, deputy mayor of Liverpool and Cllr Phil Davies, leader of Wirral Council, have joined the fund’s General Partner Board as it readies itself for a number of major investments.

Chrysalis, originally established as part of the EU’s JESSICA programme, funds its investments by recycling receipts from past loans.

In June, it received £2.3m from the successful disposal of the 120,000sq ft Aquila manufacturing facility in Knowsley by DB Symmetry and Barwood Capital to LondonMetric Property.  This will now be recycled to support other similar investments.

Welcoming the appointments, Chrysalis Fund chairman Jim Gill said: “Anne’s and Phil’s appointments confirm the strength of the working relationship between Chrysalis and the local authorities in the city region and provide the opportunity to strengthen that further through work with the Combined Authority.”

The fund is currently addressing six major opportunities in the logistics, manufacturing and renewable energy sectors and says a series of announcements can be expected over the coming months about loans that will allow deals to proceed.

Mark Bousfield from igloo Regeneration, which leads the fund’s management consortium, said: “Our specialism is in funding viable projects and making projects viable.  By definition, we need to get in to the guts of a project to ensure that our money is put to work in the most effective way and the governance function offers a critical oversight to that work.  I’m looking forward to working for Phil and Ann as the fund supports the Liverpool region’s continued resurgence.”

Chrysalis will fund land and building acquisition, site preparation and infrastructure, property development, redevelopment and refurbishment, as well as capital investment in relation to energy efficiency and low carbon projects where they are linked to wider urban development proposals.

Unless by exception, Chrysalis funding will not exceed 60% of total project costs.