Enact closes fund ii at £30m

Enact, the SME Fund providing transformational investment of up to £5 million in UK businesses, has closed its second fund at £30m. 

The individuals who comprise the investor base include successful entrepreneurs, existing and former Board members of successful Yorkshire businesses, some of the region’s best professional advisors and management from former portfolio companies.  In addition, the single biggest investor in the Fund is the Endless and Enact partner and employee group.

Enact Fund II will build on the success enjoyed by Fund I, a £7.4 million Fund which made four investments, all of which have been realised, generating an overall gross multiple on invested capital of 5.4x.

The Fund will continue to focus on UK SMEs facing real threats to their survival and needing help quickly.  The aim of the Fund is to support viable UK SMEs overcome short term problems and set them up to thrive for the longer term with strong, incentivised management teams in charge.  Consistent with Fund I, Enact will do this by providing hands-on support and building on its reputation for delivering transformational change and value as an activist investor.

Chris Cormack, partner leading the Enact Fund, commented, “Enact was set up in 2014 to address a significant funding gap for challenged SMEs across the UK.  Five years on that gap remains.  The strategy for Enact Fund II is to continue investing transformational capital into SMEs that have a robust business model but are facing capital constraints, strategic challenges or operational issues and therefore do not fit the investment criteria of traditional private equity or bank funding.

The market conditions are creating uncertainty and we have a number of opportunities under review, we are hopeful of completing an investment in the new Fund imminently.”

Enact Fund II will continue to be managed by Endless, a leading turnaround and special situations investor which has made over 80 investments since its establishment in 2005 and has a strong track record of generating high levels of investment returns for investors.