Leitch unveiled as Midlands head at Seneca

FORMER Endless investment director Nick Leitch has been revealed as the person heading up Seneca Capital’s new Midlands operation.

North West-headquartered investment firm Seneca is likely to establish a West Midlands office in the near future.

And the firm is planning to raise a £10m fund – likely to be called the Seneca Capital Fund – to help companies unable to fund growth.

Seneca – which also has an operation in Leeds –  already runs two funds from its northern offices on behalf of private investors: The EIS Fund and the Special Situations Fund.

Leitch left turnaround investment specialist Endless last September after four and a half years with the firm where he headed up its Birmingham operation. He worked on a number of high-profile turnaround projects locally during his time there including discount retailer The Works and Wolverhampton steelmaker Niagara Lasalle.

Since then he has launched an online, high-end pawnbroking business called Luxury Loans, which is based in Warwick.

TheBusinessDesk.com revealed at the beginning of August that Seneca is to launch in the West Midlands. At that point we were told only that a well-known figure in the local deals community is to head up its local operation.

Leitch said he is excited about the new role. He has already held a number of meetings with advisers and is keen to stress that Seneca won’t be in competition with the corporate finance community.

“This is principally an investment business. It is about deploying capital, not advisory work,” he said.

Leitch said the firm is well-advanced in raising the £10m for its new investment fund from private investors. Investments are likely to be up to £500,000 but he said it can write cheques for amounts above that.

But, despite his background, he said it is unlikely Seneca will be putting money into turnaround situations.

“These won’t be deeply distressed companies but nor are we competing with the Business Growth Fund,” he said. “This will be more value based investing in the middle ground.”

The investments can be debt or equity and Seneca will seek to have an element of control over the businesses it takes stakes in.

“I’ve got a good network of people I can bring in to help management teams,” Leitch said.

Seneca will also co-invest. “We will seek to partner with debt funders such as ABL firms,” Leitch said.