New £26 Million Private Equity Investment Syndicate Launched: Symphony Equity Investments Syndicate

In what is believed to be the only fund of its type focussing on the Scottish market, Glasgow-based turnaround specialists Symphony Corporate and HM Corporate Solutions, the corporate finance advisory business of lawyers Harper Macleod, have raised a new £26 million investment syndicate to be targeted at underperforming and turnaround business, mainly in Scotland.

Symphony Corporate recognised a significant gap in the SME market in Scotland and the north of England and sought to raise equity to address the needs of underperforming businesses by providing a fully integrated solution to business and funding issues.  Symphony Corporate selected HM Corporate Solutions to help structure the syndicate and lead the fund raising exercise.

Investors in the syndicate comprise high net worth business executives and Scottish family private equity firms. The directors of Symphony Corporate have also invested significant equity.

Symphony Corporate, on behalf of the syndicate, will target investments in the range of £1-5 million overall deal size (both debt and equity) and it is expected that approximately 12 such investments will be made over a three year period.

SEIS will use Symphony's extensive network to identify investment opportunities, mainly in Scotland and north of England.  Symphony's principals are Ian Mackay, Allan McLaughlin, Paul Slater and Rod Mathers.  They are chartered accountants with considerable corporate finance and industry expertise most recently specialising in turnaround investments and related advisory work. They have completed 11 such investments in recent years achieving very attractive investment returns.

This fund is believed to be unique in its focus on underperforming / turnaround Scottish SME's.  Ramsay Duff, Principal of HM Corporate Solutions, said: "traditionally private investment funds in Scotland have tended to focus on growth capital and venture capital for biotech and technology companies, however the Scottish corporate landscape is well populated with traditional, small and medium sized businesses. I believe that the economic outlook is likely to become noticeably tougher in the times ahead and this suggests that the timing of the launch of the Symphony syndicate is right and the strength of interest from investors backs this up. I am confident that with Symphony Corporate's specialist skills and the right funding, investment of this type can show attractive returns."

Symphony Corporate operates on the basis that underperforming businesses typically need two fundamental things: management and money.  SEIS provides as necessary the funding required to stabilise, refinance and then grow the business along with additional senior management to work with the existing management team providing in depth involvement rather than a monitoring role.

Ian Mackay of Symphony said:  "This is not necessarily a conventional approach to rescuing troubled businesses, but it has proven to be highly effective. The managers of underperforming businesses all too often delay making key decisions, not always because of factors outwith their control.  It may be the first time they have been in such a situation and they don't know who to turn to or what to do about restructuring or refinancing the business. There are real advantages in early intervention with the right knowledge to turn things around. We have a pool of relevant specialist business people with trouble shooting skills to re-engineer businesses alongside existing management. Now we also have the funding in place required to quickly implement the necessary solutions."

Chairman of the Syndicate investment board will be Peter Shakeshaft who is well known in the private equity investment sector in Scotland and is Chairman of umbrella body LINC Scotland.   

Specialist adviser HM Corporate Solutions continues to demonstrate its growing position in the private equity investment market by acting as corporate adviser and fundraiser, alongside Symphony, in structuring and raising £6 million of private equity for the syndicate. HM Corporate Solutions, last year raised a £30 million limited partnership fund, including £8 million of private equity, to develop a number of new hotels along with Chardon Management Limited.