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Richard Bucknall appointed to 'head up' CGF Fund
02/11/2009
Catapult Venture Managers has appointed Richard Bucknell as Fund Principal of its £30m Catapult Growth Fund (CGF) which was launched in January 2007.
Richard, who joined Catapult on October 1, will be based in Birmingham, although the fund can make investments not only in the Midlands, but nationally. The CGF Fund can provide up to £2m of equity investment to help fund needs as diverse as Management Buy-outs/Ins, acquisition finance, expansion/working capital and refinancing; and fills a major equity gap in the marketplace at sub £2m equity investment level.
Rob Carroll, Managing Director of Catapult, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Richard to our team. He has ‘in-depth experience of investing into companies and his knowledge and contacts will be invaluable not only to us, but of course those businesses in which the CGF invests.”
Richard has worked in the Midlands region for the past 11 years – the first seven of these with Barclays Ventures. His next move came in 2005 to Isis Equity Partners, investing on behalf of the Baronsmead Venture Capital Trusts. More recently, Richard has worked on a number of transactions for Maven Capital Partners.
He commented: “I am delighted to have joined Catapult and look forward to the challenges ahead. The lack of availability of debt and vendor price expectations has made buyouts fairly scarce, but demand for expansion capital is as strong as ever. Recent events have highlighted the value of a strong capital base and exposed the vulnerability of an over-reliance on debt, so equity finance can often be a better way of structuring a company’s finances in the longer term.”
“The CGF Fund is halfway through its investment cycle,” says Richard, adding: “We will make available the money to invest in strong management teams with innovative products in growing markets. Catapult is looking to partner such companies and assist with the strategic direction of the business in order to help them grow.”
Submitted by Sarah Crennell