New Partner for Key
James Hall who joined private equity house, Key, a year ago, has been promoted to the position of Partner.
Based at the firm’s Leeds head office, James has been working alongside partners Peter Armitage and Owen Trotter to source investment opportunities in profitable, dynamic SMEs across the North of England following the first closing of Key’s latest fund. The team specialises in the smaller buyout market, backing growing businesses with £3m to £15m of equity finance to fund MBOs, equity release and development capital deals.
With 17 years’ experience within the sector, James has held senior positions with private equity houses such as Royal Bank Development Capital, ISIS Equity Partners and NorthEdge Capital; and he has also acted as a non-executive director for a number of businesses.
It’s been an exciting year with Key, deal flow remains very strong and we were delighted to complete our investment in Routes Healthcare which is the first deal in the new fund. The lack of funding for SMEs remains a problem and, with the majority of PE houses not making investments under £15m, Key is in a great position to recognise potential and support fast-growing businesses as demonstrated by our recent exit from Gear4Music, having helped it to grow from a £10m turnover business to £55m in just four years and is now valued at over £80m.
Key investment partner Peter Armitage said: “As an experienced PE investor, James has proved a valuable asset to the team. We now have a number of potential deals in the pipeline and his expertise will be instrumental in helping us to give these entrepreneurial businesses the operational support, in addition to the funding they need, in order to grow and develop further.”