Each of our UK business lines has a highly-focused approach to supporting UK companies with outstanding growth prospects:

• Our Growth Capital business provides financial support between €10m-150m to fast-growing companies across a broad range of industry sectors.  Many of the businesses the team supports are established family enterprises that are looking to fund organic growth, release equity or support acquisitions.  The team’s highly-successful 40-year relationship with document solutions provider Williams Lea culminated in the company’s new partnership with Deutsche Post in May 2006.  A recent investment in Hayley Conference Centres will help the business migrate its proven UK business model to mainland Europe.
• Our Infrastructure business invests €10-350m per transaction in asset-intensive businesses that provide essential services over the longer term.  These businesses are often regulated.  They tend to generate stable returns and show some resistance to economic cycles.  Among the essential UK services whose development we’ve supported are Octagon Healthcare, a new hospital in Norwich that was completed in September 2001, twenty weeks early and £10m under budget, and Alpha Schools (Highland), a project to build ten new schools in Scotland under a 30-year PFI contract, with a 2010 target date for completion.
• Our Buyouts business invests funds on its own behalf and for third-party investors, acquiring majority holdings in established mid-market companies with an enterprise value up to €1bn.  These companies typically have excellent management teams and highly-attractive prospects for growth.  In September 2005, the Buyouts team undertook 3i Group’s biggest transaction to date in the €808m acquisition of NCP, the UK’s leading provider of parking services.  This has been followed by further landmark deals in 2006, such as the leading detective and fiction brand owner, Chorion and the manufacturer and distributor of baby products, Mayborn.