BGF
IndustryGrowth Capital
Founded2011
Key people
Andy Gregory, Stephen Welton, Sir Nigel Rudd
Total assets£2.5bn
Number of employees
180
Websitewww.bgf.co.uk

BGF, established in 2011 as the Business Growth Fund, is an investment company that provides growth capital for small and mid-sized businesses in the UK and Ireland.[1]

From a network of 16 offices in the UK and Ireland, the company has invested more than £3 billion in more than 400 small and mid-sized companies.[2] Around three-quarters of its investments have been in companies based outside London and South East England.[3]

BGF typically takes minority, non-controlling shareholdings in investee companies.[4] BGF has completed more than 150 exits by selling businesses in its portfolio.[5]

History

BGF was founded in 2011 by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered banks, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.[6]

The launch followed lobbying of both Conservative and Labour politicians by businessman Sir Nigel Rudd, who had argued for the creation of an organisation to provide equity funding to help close a perceived funding gap for small and mid-sized businesses.[7] A shortfall in funding for small and mid-sized businesses in the UK had been identified as long ago as 1931 by the Macmillan Committee.[8]

BGF was seen as a successor to the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC), set up by the Bank of England in 1945 and subsequently renamed 3i.[9] BGF has been described as the “modern 3i”.[10]

Stephen Welton, founding CEO, said that a new organisation was needed because 3i’s business model, in line with the private equity industry generally, had evolved to focus on large buyout deals, meaning it had less of a focus on providing growth capital to small and mid-sized businesses.[11]

In 2017, BGF opened an office in Dublin to administer a €250 million fund to invest in small and mid-sized Irish companies.[12] The Irish fund is backed by AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and BGF’s existing shareholders.[13]

BGF’s model has been replicated in Canada with the Canadian Business Growth Fund, launched in 2018 and backed by financial institutions including Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Manulife.[14] In 2019, the Australian Business Growth Fund was launched with backing from banks including Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank.[15]

Leadership

Andy Gregory has been chief executive officer of BGF since 1 September 2022.[16] He took over from Stephen Welton, formerly of JP Morgan & Co, who led BGF since inception in 2011.[17] From 1 January 2023, Welton will serve as non-executive chair of the business.[18]

In 2013, Welton was appointed as an adviser to the government regarding the establishment of the British Business Bank, and, in 2017, he was invited to join the Industry Panel for the UK Government’s Patient Capital Review.[19]

Investment approach

BGF typically makes initial investments of between £2-15 million, with the possibility for follow-on investments.[20]

The firm provides patient capital, which has been defined by HM Treasury as “long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large-scale businesses”.[21]

BGF typically invests as a minority, non-controlling shareholder.[22] Investments are usually structured as ordinary shares, loan notes or a combination.[23]

When an investment is sold, the returns are reinvested in the fund.[24] This model has been called an “evergreen balance sheet”.[25]

BGF invests in a range of companies including start-ups, growth-stage businesses and quoted companies across almost every region and sector of the UK and Irish economy, barring financial services.[26]

BGF has been recognised as the most active growth investor in the world by number of investments, averaging about one investment a week.

Notable investments

  • Recipe box delivery company Gousto first received funding from BGF in 2015.[27] Gousto became a unicorn in 2020 when it completed a funding round valuing the business at more than $1 billion.[28]
  • Social video advertising platform Unruly received financing from BGF in a funding round announced in 2012.[29] The business was acquired by News Corp for £58 million in 2015.[30]
  • M Squared, which develops lasers and photonic optical instruments, received funding from BGF in 2012.[31] BGF exited the majority of its shareholding in the company in 2020 when the Scottish National Investment Bank became a shareholder.[32]

The growth economy

The historian Sir Anthony Seldon has described the market segment of small and mid-sized companies in which BGF seeks to invest as “the growth economy”.[33] Research by PwC found there were 21,400 growth economy companies in the UK in 2018, defined as fast-growing businesses that report turnover of between £2.5-100 million.[34]

BGF provides an alternative source of funding for these companies, which have traditionally relied on bank loans to finance growth.[35]

References

  1. ↑ "New Growth Fund opens for business". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  2. ↑ Reid, Scot (2022-07-18). "Investor BGF undertakes 'organisational evolution' with string of executive changes". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  3. ↑ Evans, Peter. "BGF's Stephen Welton, the constant gardener of budding Bransons". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  4. ↑ "Walker Precision Engineering secures second BGF investment". BBC News. 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  5. ↑ "What we do". BGF. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  6. ↑ "New Growth Fund opens for business". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  7. ↑ "Sir Nigel Rudd and Stephen Welton say new investment fund will create 'opportunities that don't currently exist'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  8. ↑ Lord Percy (1955). "The MacMillan Gap and the Shortage of Risk Capital". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. 118 (1): 1–7. doi:10.2307/2342517. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  9. ↑ MacLellan, Douwe Miedema, Kylie (2012-05-16). "UK small business fund looks to fill bank gap". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-02-22.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ "Business big shot: Richard Bishop". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  11. ↑ "Sir Nigel Rudd and Stephen Welton say new investment fund will create 'opportunities that don't currently exist'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  12. ↑ Brennan, Joe. "New €250m fund aims to take equity stakes in Irish SMEs". Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  13. ↑ Healy, Alan (2020-02-20). "Investor BGF opens Cork office to target Munster firms". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  14. ↑ "Growth fund backed by big banks looking to pick up the pace of investment". financialpost. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  15. ↑ Wright, Shane (2019-11-26). "Big banks to pump $100 million each into business growth fund". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  16. ↑ Reid, Scot (2022-07-18). "Investor BGF undertakes 'organisational evolution' with string of executive changes". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  17. ↑ BGF. "Stephen Welton to be Appointed Executive Chairman of BGF". www.prnewswire.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  18. ↑ Reid, Scot (2022-07-18). "Investor BGF undertakes 'organisational evolution' with string of executive changes". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  19. ↑ "New advisory hires for government's business bank includes BGF chief executive Stephen Welton". Growth Business. 2013-01-23. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  20. ↑ McDonald, Gary (2020-12-22). "Investor BGF targets injecting £100m equity into ambitious businesses". The Irish News. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  21. ↑ "Financing growth in innovative firms: consultation" (PDF). GOV.UK. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-02-26.
  22. ↑ "Walker Precision Engineering secures second BGF investment". BBC News. 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  23. ↑ "Business Growth Fund | Barclays Corporate". www.barclayscorporate.com. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  24. ↑ MacLellan, Douwe Miedema, Kylie (2012-05-16). "UK small business fund looks to fill bank gap". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-02-22.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ↑ "What we do". BGF. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  26. ↑ "Stephen Welton, BGF Q&A: 'We want to help you make a quantum leap'". Growth Business. 2019-08-06. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  27. ↑ "Gousto raises £9m with backing of Business Growth Fund and MMC Ventures". Growth Business. 2015-12-07. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  28. ↑ "Gousto becomes lastest [sic] UK tech 'unicorn' after lockdown surge". CityAM. 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  29. ↑ "Unruly gets $25M to fuel global expansion". TBK Consult. 2012-01-06. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  30. ↑ McGoogan, Cara (2015-09-16). "News Corp's £58m Unruly acquisition shows 'high caliber' of UK tech scene". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  31. ↑ "Laser firm M Squared secures funding boost". BBC News. 2012-05-01. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  32. ↑ "Glasgow 'quantum developer' raises £32.5m from major backers". BusinessCloud. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  33. ↑ "Coronavirus: £15bn fund essential to avert 'economic catastrophe', historian Seldon warns". Sky News. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  34. ↑ "The Growth Economy". BGF. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  35. ↑ "Business Growth Fund plugs equity gap for entrepreneurs". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
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