Mercia wins additional British Business Bank contracts to boost growth in Yorkshire and the Humber
London-based asset manager Mercia has won two more regional investment fund mandates from the British Business Bank.
The specialist asset manager will deliver a £100m equity fund to be invested in Yorkshire and the Humber and managed by Mercia Regional Ventures and a £53m debt fund to be used in the same region and managed by Mercia Business Loans.
Both ventures come under the British Business Bank’s (BBB’s) ‘Nations and Regions Investments’ Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II initiative.
Mercia today said that the funds will be managed and deployed by the group’s staff based largely across three of its existing offices in Sheffield, Leeds and Hull to support businesses in the regions.
The two initiatives, when combined with two mandates issued last month with a combined value of £207m, total £360m of new funds under management for the group.
Mercia anticipates to recoup incremental annual revenues from the projects of around £4m.
Dr Mark Payton, chief executive of Mercia Asset Management, said: “As with last month’s announcement that the Group had been selected by the British Business Bank to manage three new mandates totalling £207m, we are delighted that, following an equally competitive selection process, the Group has also now been selected to manage two new Northern Powerhouse II mandates, totalling an additional £153m.
“We recognise and thank the British Business Bank for the trust placed in all of us at Mercia.”
He added: “This is a further strong vote of confidence in our investment track record, which is built on our ability to successfully deploy the capital that is really needed to support exciting growth companies through our established regional footprints and networks.
“The combined £360m of new fund mandate awards is anticipated to result in £4m of net incremental revenue in our next financial year, supporting our naturally evolving strategic focus of growing our profitable third party fund management operations.”