UK firm Aberdeen Asset Management’s senior executives have led a management buy-out, creating a new private equity firm Maven Capital Partners.
Bill Nixon, current head of investment at Aberdeen Asset Managers Private Equity, has led the buy-out with senior executives Andrew Craig, Jock Gardiner, Stella Panu, Bill Kennedy and Andrew Ferguson joining him in forming Maven.
The investment strategy will continue to focus on private company investments and the management of client funds, including seven Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), and Maven will continue to manage funds on Aberdeen’s behalf.
The full back-office team that currently supports the Aberdeen and other third-party client funds is also moving to Maven.
At Aberdeen, private equity was a stand-alone and largely autonomous division. In the five years from 2004 the team built a specialist private equity and VCT business with a significant fund base, becoming recognised as one of the UK’s most active SME investors, with around 54 million ($63 million) of VCT client funds invested in 29 new private company transactions during that time.
The Maven team also manages the 30 million (€35 million) Capital for Enterprise Fund A, having been appointed by Capital for Enterprise Fund Managers to jointly run this initiative as part of the Real Help for Business programme. The Capital for Enterprise Fund is one of the measures introduced by the government to bridge the current funding gap that many UK small and medium enterprises are experiencing as a result of the credit crisis.
“We’d like to thank Aberdeen for its support in building our business to its current position of strength and have very much enjoyed our time as part of the group,” says Bill Nixon, managing partner of Maven Capital Partners. “The opportunity has now arisen to acquire the business and become an independent private equity fund manager, which is a natural evolution for the team more in line with current industry practice. We are also very pleased that the entire Aberdeen private equity investment and support function across the UK has joined Maven, allowing us to secure the services of some very experienced colleagues to help manage and grow the business. We look forward to the future under our new brand with great enthusiasm.”
D.C.