Craig and Redmond in £20m fund launch
FIVE North West professionals are seeking to raise £20m for a fund to rescue distressed businesses.
Manchester lawyer Alec Craig, senior partner of Halliwells, and Andrew Redmond, the accountant turned entrepreneur, are the highest profile figures behind The Eternitas Fund, which will be managed from Darwen, Lancashire.
Other founders include brothers Andrew and Neil Duckworth – the former owners of auctioneers SHM Smith Hodgkinson, and David Shaw a former accountant and director with debt advisory firm Fairpoint.
Eternitas aims to deliver a fast and flexible source of finance and management expertise to struggling businesses across the country.
An investment commitment of up to £20m is being sought from investors over a five year period (2009-2014).
Mr Redmond – the founder of Lancashire-based debt advice company Debt Free Direct – said: “Business turnaround and restructure are at the top of our list of investment priorities; our structure will enable us to move quickly to deliver management strategy and flexible funding to ailing businesses, and to safeguard jobs wherever possible.
“We will also be looking at acquisition opportunities – in particular, distressed property, asset and debt portfolios – in order to maximise returns for our investors.“
Andrew Duckworth added “Our unique combination of expertise and contacts will enable us to generate a flow of immediate opportunities for the Eternitas Fund. We are anticipating an extremely busy 12 months.”
