Berryman insight into being an Angel
05/06/2008
In a positive step for the regions entrepreneurs, law firm Berryman has teamed-up with the Growth Investment Network East Midlands to fill the information gap for local private investors and the business angels’ network.
Toby Reid of Growth Investment explains: “There are a lot of high net worth individuals in the East Midlands who might be interested in being business angels, but there is no obvious local first port of call for them to find out more, so with the support of Berryman, we have launched the Angel Insight initiative to address and rectify this.”
Angel Insight kicked off with an event designed specifically for potential private investors, as Katie Botham, a lawyer in the corporate finance team at Berryman who organised and hosted the session, explains: “The First Session in the Angel Insight programme, drew together eleven potential private investors from across the region and a cross section of industry sectors. Each of these potential investors was personally invited to the event, and their enthusiasm and attendance confirmed what the team suspected – that they are keen to find out how to put their experiences to good use, but up until now have been unable to easily track down the information locally.
“The event delivered an overview of the opportunities and mutual benefits for investors and entrepreneurs of the principles of being a business angel. The event panel, and the driving force behind Angel Insight, was made up of Toby Reid, Steve McEwen of Beer & Partners, Peter Le Noury of Catapult Venture Managers, David Staveley of Cavendish Management Resources, Philip Rogers of Cooper Parry, and myself.”
Amongst the delegates were Tony Barkas of Barwood Products and John Pike of Opus Joynes Pike, who both recently completed the sale of their businesses, advised by the corporate team at Berryman.
Katie adds: “There is a distinct lack of active business angel investors in the East Midlands, in fact there are very few outside of London and the South East, in spite of the great pool of successful business individuals we have here. It is vital for the regions’ economy to provide not only financial support, but also the skills and experiences of our local businesses to support entrepreneurs.
“Whilst they may have the idea, vision and inspiration for a new product or company, what many of our entrepreneurs lack is the money and business know-how, and this is where business angels and here in the East Midlands Angel Insight, can make the difference.”
She adds: “What each of the private investors taking part in this first event has in common is that most have recently sold their business, giving them invaluable knowledge of the overall process, potentially the finance to support emerging enterprises, but above all a passion and interest in passing on their invaluable experience to other organisations. This criterion makes them perfect candidates for business angels.”
“In addition to the higher volume of activity and interest that we are seeing for business angels as a result of the credit crunch,” says Philip Rogers of Cooper Parry, “there are also some new and exciting tax breaks for such investors to take advantage of. The new Entrepreneurs Relief will enable the first £1M of any capital gain that an investor makes to only be taxed at 10 percent as opposed to the flat rate of tax of 18 percent.”
Toby Reid adds: “Private equity, business angel investment, although high risk, still offers significant upsides at a time when more traditional investments such as property, stocks and shares, are struggling. It is harder for businesses and individuals to raise debt finance under the current conditions, but we should see a good volume of businesses looking to raise equity finance through business angels and venture capital firms.”
A Dragons Den style event is already planned as a follow-up for the Angel Insight first session, as Katie explains: “All our potential private investors have been invited to take part in the event next month. We have invited real life entrepreneurs looking for investment and the support of knowledgeable local business people to take their idea to the next stage. The event will give our potential business angels to ‘try the concept for size’ in this dry run exercise, an exciting and important next step in the process of deciding if they wish to become business angels.”
A second Angel Insight session is also planned by Berryman for later this year. The initiative is backed by emda.
Submitted by Diane Wood