THE Business Growth Fund (BGF), established to help Britain’s fast growing smaller and medium sized businesses, said Simon Munro was joining as regional director for Scotland.
He will lead a team with a mandate to identify fast growing Scottish businesses that would benefit from BGF growth capital, execute these investments and work alongside management teams post-investment as a board member and partner investor.
Mr Munro has 20 years’ experience advising and investing in companies, predominantly in the oil and gas industry. He spent eight years with RMD Corporate Finance before helping establish the European office of Simmons & Company International.
He then spent a year in Hong Kong in JPMorgan’s oil and gas industry team before joining Lime Rock to help establish its presence in Europe.
Mr Munro said: “Small Scottish companies with annual turnover in the £5million to £50million range have in recent years struggled to attract the capital they need to invest and grow. Being part of a substantial fund, specifically designed to address that funding gap, is a very exciting prospect. With my background of investing in oil and gas, I am keen to quickly establish the fund as a supporter of the sector. Further recruitment to provide the presence which we will need to work closely with companies in the oil and gas industry is a key part of the plan.”
BGF is an independent company with capital of up to £2.5billion, backed by five of the UK’s main banking groups – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered.