Beech Tree hails a year of successes as it looks to more in 2017
Manchester-headquartered private equity firm Beech Tree has hailed a successful year, announcing total funds under management of more than £100m.
The firm, which is based at The Colony in Wilmslow and also has an office in Birmingham, says 2017 is already looking strong as it expects to invest in two to three fast growing businesses, bringing total capital under management to around £120m.
Andy Marsh, managing partner of Beech Tree Private Equity, told TheBusinessDesk: “We have been very active over the last 12 months with three new investments and fund raising. Looking forward to the rest of 2017 we want to maintain this momentum with a similar number of new companies coming into the portfolio along with more bolt on acquisitions for our existing businesses.
“We are looking for businesses that are growing quickly and that would like a partner to help them continue or accelerate that rate of growth. This is what we do… Whilst we are based in the North West and the Midlands we do look nationwide for opportunities. Areas that are of particular interest to us this year are technology enabled disruptive business models, data management businesses, financial services businesses and businesses involved in process automation.”
Over the last 12 months Beech Tree has made three investments totalling £44m and completed three bolt on acquisitions for its portfolio companies.
The three investments were: Fluent Money Group, the Bolton-based online loan broker; Wavenet, the Midlands-based unified communications provider; and Learnlight, the London and Spanish-based educational technology business.
Last month, TheBusinessDesk.com revealed that the firm had reached first close on its second fund, and that it is looking to raise around £80m in total by the summer.
Andy Marsh launched the firm with Paul Franks just over two years ago, with both having previously headed up their respective regional offices for Gresham Private Equity.
Beech Tree typically invests around £40m-£50m a year with investments of between £10m-£40m in companies valued up to £75m that operate in high growth sub-sectors.
