Growth Capital Partners and British Business Bank Investments Ltd are pleased to announce a £40 million investment from British Business Bank Investments Ltd, completing the final close of GCP’s fourth fund ‘Growth Capital Partners Fund IV LP’.
The Fund exceeded its target of £200m with commitments from a diverse investor base of UK, European and US institutional investors, including public pension funds, insurance companies and investment management groups. Existing investors showed strong continued support, with 80 per cent making further investments, and six new UK and European investors have also been welcomed into the Fund.
This close caps a significant year for GCP. In the last 12 months five new investments have been made across the UK; Fund III continues to outperform with two strong exits to financial and trade buyers; three team members have joined the firm and a total of £100 million pounds has been committed to supporting UK SMEs.
GCP’s distinctive, flexible approach gives it the ability to provide all of the funding in a deal and its partnership style is focused on working with ambitious, like-minded management teams to enhance the value of their businesses.
GCP will continue to pursue investment opportunities between £5m and £30m with entrepreneurial management teams. The Fund close enables the team to continue its distinct and differentiated strategy of making buy-out and growth capital investments in the UK lower mid-market, across a range of sectors.
GCP has been advised by Macfarlanes LLP and Atlantic-Pacific Capital, Inc.
Garrett Curran, Managing Partner of Growth Capital Partners: “We are delighted with the continued support from our existing investors and pleased to welcome new partners such as British Business Bank Investments Ltd into the Fund. Investors were very receptive to GCP’s differentiated strategy in the UK lower middle market, which has generated consistently strong returns since 2000. With four investments already in the portfolio Fund IV is off to a promising start and we remain committed to investing in UK SMEs – a key driver of the UK economy.”
Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Business Bank Investments Ltd: “Our participation in GCP’s fourth fund will enable additional capital to be invested in promising UK-based SMEs that require growth capital to scale up successfully. GCP’s approach of providing a combination of debt and equity finance meets our objective of promoting greater diversity in the supply of funding solutions for smaller businesses.”
