It has been a busy final quarter for the sixteen strong Private Equity team at Foresight, who between them invested over £17 million into nine companies across the UK.
The Foresight Regional Investment Fund, targeting companies in the North West of England, North Wales and South Yorkshire supported by Foresight’s new Manchester office has already deployed one third of funds within its first 12 months and has a strong pipeline of investment opportunities under consideration.
The Foresight Nottingham Fund has now made investments into twelve companies and is over 50% deployed, with portfolio company TheIdleMan.com announcing a further investment from Channel 4 in the form of an innovative media for equity deal and new investments in the final quarter into Nottingham-based PlayerLayer, S4RB, Idio and Ekkosense.
In October, the team’s efforts were recognised in the 2016 Unquote British Private Equity Awards, where Foresight was named “VCT House of the Year” with the Judges commenting: “Foresight really impressed the judges this year with their sustained work rate and strong returns”.
In November, Foresight launched the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund, a unique collaboration between Foresight and Williams Advanced Engineering, the subsidiary of Williams Grand Prix Engineering. This innovative fund will target investments into early-stage, unquoted companies that are developing disruptive technology and pioneering innovations which will benefit from the engineering and technological expertise from Williams and the investment nous of Foresight.
Foresight partner and head of Private Equity Russell Healey summed up by saying: “2016 will go down as one of the most industrious years for the Private Equity team at Foresight. Since the referendum in June when the UK voted to leave the European Union, amidst all the ensuing political and economic turmoil, we have seen continuing strong demand for growth funding from quality UK SMEs and we expect the forthcoming tax year end will see strong demand from private investors for tax-efficient VCT and EIS opportunities.”
