Three more entrepreneurial businesses receive a funding boost from The Scottish Loan Fund
CST Global, Deep Casing Tools and VisionWare all successfully secure Scottish Loan Fund backing
The Scottish Loan Fund (SLF), which is managed by Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and in which Scottish Enterprise is a cornerstone investor through the Scottish Investment Bank, is pleased to announce its support of three more growth-focused businesses.
In the two years since launch the SLF has now committed over £28 million of funds in 11 Scottish SMEs. Set up to address the market need for finance, funding from the SLF continues to help companies in Scotland to achieve their business plans and facilitate the next stage of their growth aspirations.
Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global (CST) received £1.7 million of funding to acquire new equipment which will enable it to bring more parts of the production process in-house, rather than outsourcing, and will allow CST to expand its product base. The Hamilton based business provides semiconductor foundry and custom services, specialising in the design, development and manufacture of discrete and integrated III-V opto-electronic devices. The demand for semiconductors has seen rapid growth, fuelled in part by the increasing demand for feature rich handsets and smartphones in the communications sector.
Aberdeen-based Deep Casing Tools (Deep Casing) has developed an innovative range of tools for use in the oil and gas industry to enable casing and completions to be landed first time at target depth within an oil or gas well. Deep Casing’s unique drill-through technology provides significant time and cost savings when compared to conventional methods. The outlook for the business is extremely positive as the market continues to shift focus towards both unconventional shale assets and drilling in more complex deeper water. The £2.1 million funding from the SLF will provide working capital headroom for the business to exploit this market opportunity as well as helping to grow Deep Casing’s operations in the Middle East and US.
Another successful Scottish business to call on the support of the SLF is VisionWare, a software company based in Glasgow. VisionWare has developed its own specialised master data management (MDM) software called ‘MultiVue’. The technology allows organisations to integrate remote data sources and actively manage the output to create a single, reliable view of their customers. Having a single source of data enables on-going data quality improvements and ultimately savings on costs. The MDM market continues to grow consistently each year and with budget cuts ongoing across the public sector, there is a driver to invest in making sustainable and measureable changes. The £1 million of SLF funding, alongside additional funding from the Bank of Scotland, will be used to increase sales and consultancy personnel in both the UK and US as the business looks to exploit new opportunities.
Julie Glenny, Investment Director at Maven Capital Partners, said: “These three investments help to demonstrate just how flexible Scottish Loan Fund finance can be in helping ambitious SMEs. While these companies operate in different sectors, we have worked
closely with each of the management teams to tailor a solution that fits with their business needs and ultimately their strategic objectives.
"CST, Deep Casing and Visionware fit the SLF mould perfectly. They have proven to be innovative and most importantly have clearly defined strategies in place to grow the businesses. We are pleased that the SLF will play a key part in helping these companies fulfil their potential and continue to be encouraged by the high calibre of introductions we are seeing from across Scotland.”
Kerry Sharp, Head of the Scottish Investment Bank, said: “This announcement shows how important the Scottish Loan Fund is in driving Scotland’s businesses and economy. Without its support, these three businesses could have missed their chance to develop and grow. Now they have the finance to keep expanding and exploring new options. That’s the kind of service Scotland’s SMEs need.”
Neil Martin, CEO of CST, said “We are delighted to be working with the team at Maven having successfully completed this funding at what is a crucial time in the company’s evolution. The flexible funding package will allow us to begin providing a core technology in-house, thereby securing the supply chain, whilst providing an IP platform for next generation devices that our customers will need. The structure and timing of the SLF deal further complements our long term investor strategy as we develop our offering to top-tier, international customers.”
Lance Davis, CEO of Deep Casing Tools, said: “This funding announcement is very important, not only providing the working capital to invest in inventory and people, it also marks the confirmation of the company moving from early stage to commercial growth.”
Gordon Cooper, CEO at VisionWare, said: “Throughout the process I was encouraged by the professionalism and commercial focus the team at Maven had on completing the transaction. At all times we worked to a mutual set of objectives that enables VisionWare to execute against our plan into new sectors and continue with our success to-date. I have every confidence that our relationship with Maven and the support of the SLF will enable VisionWare to meet our aspirations for growth over the next three years.”
For further information, please contact:
Maven Capital Partners
Julie Glenny 0141 206 0122 julie.glenny@mavencp.com
Steve Marshall 0141 306 7585 steve.marshall@mavencp.com
Newgate Threadneedle
Roddy Watt 0207 653 9850
Heather Armstrong
Background to the Scottish Loan Fund
In February 2011 Maven was selected as the fund manager of the Scottish Loan Fund, which was established by the Scottish Investment Bank with £55 million cornerstone public sector funding from Scottish Enterprise (including a contribution from the European Regional Development Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise). Further investment from the private sector, including Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, Clydesdale Bank, Santander, Strathclyde Pension Fund and Aberdeen City Council Pension Fund took the fund to its final size of £113 million.
The Fund was set up to address the market need for finance by SMEs. It focuses on providing mezzanine loans to growth and export businesses with an annual turnover of more than £1 million.
About Maven Capital Partners UK LLP www.mavencp.com
Maven Capital Partners UK LLP (Maven) is a small-to-mid cap private equity house focused on the provision of growth capital and mezzanine finance to SMEs across the UK. It is one of the most active private equity fund managers in the country, managing around £280 million of assets for a variety of client funds, including Venture Capital Trusts, the SLF, Capital for Enterprise Fund A, and a number of family offices and high net worth individuals.
Headquartered in Glasgow, and with five other offices throughout the UK, Maven has nationwide coverage of the market for SME finance and is able to source a variety of deals through 18 regionally based investment executives. With over 35 staff and partners, Maven executes a range of private company transactions, offers hands-on proactive portfolio management to investee companies and provides a fully integrated back-office support function to client and third party fund managers.
The Maven team has completed over 30 private company deals since June 2009, including 17 mezzanine and equity deals on behalf of the UK Government backed Capital for Enterprise Fund A, which was an initiative to help SMEs gain access to the financial support required to bridge the funding gap caused by the credit crisis.
About the Scottish Investment Bank
The Scottish Investment Bank is a division of Scottish Enterprise operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It manages a suite of funds including the Scottish Seed Fund; the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Venture Fund, which are partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); the Scottish Plastics Loan Fund and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund. SIB is also the cornerstone investor in the privately-managed Scottish Loan Fund. Together, these funds support Scotland’s SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to capital. SIB also provides a team of financial readiness specialists to help companies prepare for new investment and more easily access finance. See www.scottish-enterprise.com/sib for more.