DunPort launches €50m fund to support Covid-19 impacted SMEs.
DunPort Capital Management (DunPort) has today (21 March 2021) announced a €50m fund to provide tailored and flexible capital solutions to Irish small and medium sized enterprises whose businesses have been directly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The fund, backed by a €50m commitment from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), will seek to support well-established, historically profitable Irish SMEs with annual turnovers of between €5m and €50m and funding requirements of between €3m and €15m. Capital from the fund may be used to address Covid-19 related challenges while allowing investee companies to retain existing financing relationships and avoid material shareholder dilution.
“The significant impact of Covid-19 on businesses of all sizes in Ireland will be long lasting,” said Pat Walsh, Executive Director of DunPort. “To ensure that Irish businesses can exit this challenging period with financial stability and poised for recovery and growth, company balance sheets will require restructuring to transition the build-up of unsustainable short term liability balances into manageable longer-term obligations. DunPort is therefore very pleased to offer, with the backing of ISIF, a suitably structured, patient capital solution to businesses in Ireland that most need it,” Mr Walsh said.
“We have seen robust and sustained demand from a wide range of Irish businesses for flexible debt solutions since DunPort was founded in 2017,” added Ross Morrow, Executive Director of DunPort. “Given our strong track record of sourcing and providing flexible debt capital solutions to Irish businesses across a wide range of sectors, DunPort is ideally positioned to support ISIF in the deployment of capital under the Pandemic Stabilisation and Recovery Fund,” Mr Morrow said.
“ISIF is already a significant supporter of Irish SMEs and this is another example of the Fund deploying capital on a commercial basis in support of businesses that generate important economic activity and employment,” said Donal Murphy, Senior Investment Director at ISIF. “This fund offers an effective and flexible way for SMEs to access ISIF capital, as they navigate the challenges created by the pandemic and position themselves for future growth.”
