€30m fund to provide growth capital to Irish SMEs

A new €30 million fund aimed at small and medium -sized enterprises is set to offer growth capital to Irish companies.

The BMS Finance Fund, which is backed by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, will offer loans ranging from €500,000 to €5 million for working capital, contract wins, capital expenditure, acquisitions and MBOs, and will be on a senior secured basis.

UK-based BMS Finance is to open an office in Dublin to support the fund.

"Following on from the expansion in December 2015 of our UK-based fund, expansion into the Irish market was the next logical step given our historic experience of investing directly into Irish SMEs. This funding will allow BMS to significantly expand our lending capacity to high growth Irish SMEs," said Shane Lanigan, director of BMS Finance,

The fund will target all sectors although BMS said will not be seeking property or property development investments.

The backing of the ISIF was a vote of confidence in the company’s business model, BMS said.

“Our market research has shown that early stage Irish SMEs and those with limited available collateral often struggle to raise terms loans in the €1 million to €3 million range,” said Eugene O’Callaghan, Director of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. “ This investment demonstrates the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund’s ability to attract an experienced manager and co-investors into the Irish market to provide a product that addresses this financing gap.”