Sir Peter Vardy has strongly denied that he is planning to close his venture capital investment fund after a report emerged to the contrary yesterday.
The Newcastle Journal reported that Vardy Venture Capital (VVC) was about to close after making no investments due to a lack of good companies to invest in.
However, Sir Peter told Growing Business magazine that there ‘isn’t any truth’ in the report and that the £50m fund, set up in June last year, would remain open.
He explained that the reason for the lack of any investments made so far was that the majority of applications to his fund had come from early-stage or start-up companies for which the fund was not designed.
“I was told that there was an equity gap for companies looking for between £500,000 and £2m and I wanted to help folks in the North East who were looking for that sort of sum.
“We have had lots of applications from new start-ups, however I think that this is a market which is already well catered for.
“I am not set up to look after a lot of new start-ups, we don’t have the office here for that sort of commitment.”
Sir Peter admits that he doesn’t think that there is an ‘equity gap’ in the North East for companies, although he still wanted to find businesses to back.
Vardy made his fortune by growing the car business set up by his father Reg in the 1920s and developing it into one of the UK motor trade’s best known names.
He sold the business last year to Pendragon for £506m and reportedly netted himself £80m in the process.
As a condition of the deal he is currently unable to operate in the motor trade and now invests in property, schools and has personal investments in three private companies.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
