YFM to manage transitional fund
FUND manager YFM Group has won the contract to manage the £9m equity part of the Government’s transitional venture capital fund for the North West.
The fund has been launched to fill the gap left by the year-long delay of the European Union-backed £140m venture capital loan fund which has become mired in bureaucracy.
Under the transitional arrangement £13.5m will be available to small and medium-sized businesses – £9m for equity investment and £4.5m available as loan funding.
David Hall, managing director of Salford-based YFM, confirmed the group has been selected by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and is now meeting management teams of various businesses.
“We’ve signed the contract and it’s now with the NWDA to put their signature to it,” said Mr Hall. “We are now open for business across the region.”
YFM was competing with Liverpool-based Alliance Fund Managers which last week confirmed it had been forced to make nine of its 27 staff redundant after losing out on the full contract.
In a statement chairman Michael Hulme said AFM was “very disappointed” not to have been appointed given its work managing another EU-backed fund, the Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF).
Mr Hall said YFM will be working with Manchester-based private equity firm MTI Partners. MTI, which already handles the University of Manchester’s UMIP Premier Fund, will look after small scale seed investments. It is not yet known how much cash will be earmarked for spin-outs.
The main VCLF is still expected to be launched next year but has been held up by the bureacratic process which involves European institutions, several departments in central government and regional officials at the NWDA.
