Foresight makes key hire for £50m South West fund

Foresight Group, the private equity and infrastructure investment manager, has appointed Olly Cox to its private equity team.

Based in Bristol, Cox, who has joined as senior investment manager, will support the deployment and management of the recently launched Foresight South West Fund.

He brings over 12 years’ deal experience and joins Foresight from Literacy Capital, a closed-end investment company focused on investing in and supporting smaller UK businesses and helping their management teams to achieve long-term success. Prior to Literacy Capital, Olly spent six years in corporate finance at Numis Securities.

The Foresight South West Fund is Foresight’s seventh regional private equity fund, and is dedicated to investing into growing companies, across all sectors and transaction types, throughout South West England. Spanning Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire.

Cornerstoned by Devon Pension Fund, the fund will target equity investments in established, promising companies with growth potential.

The fund is designed to be evergreen, providing a permanent pool of capital around which SMEs can make long term plans. The fund is flexible and can cater for the full range of transaction types including buyouts and equity release, always with the objective of supporting companies to grow and achieve their business ambitions.

Matthew Smith, partner at Foresight, said: “We are delighted to welcome Olly to the team, following the launch of our new South West Fund. We plan to open offices in Bristol and Exeter, as we look to establish a strong local presence in a region that is home to so many exciting businesses.”

Cox added: “I am excited at the prospect of deploying a new and dedicated pool of capital into the South West. The region is diverse and there will be many SMEs which we can support. Using this evergreen source of capital, as well as our expertise in growing SMEs, we will look to partner with founders, shareholders, and management teams, to achieve their goals and ambitions. I look forward to meeting as many of them as I can.”