First two exits from the Capital for Enterprise Fund A

Realisations of Vero Software and Documetric

Maven Capital Partners has recently completed two exits on behalf of Capital for Enterprise (CfE) Fund A. The £75m CfE Fund is a Government backed initiative launched in 2009 to help small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) gain access to the financial support required to bridge the funding gap caused by the credit crisis.

Maven has completed seventeen investments since August 2009 across the UK, investing around £26m to date. The realisations of Documetric and Vero are the first for CfE Fund A.

In December 2009 Maven led a £2m mezzanine investment on behalf of CfE Fund A in Vero Software, a leading supplier of specialist software for the design and manufacturing of applications for plastics injection moulds, sheet metal stamping dies and electrode production across a range of industry sectors. The investment enabled Vero to replace existing bank facilities in full, while providing additional working capital to fund future growth and development plans.

Vero was recently the subject of an approach from a US based private equity house leading to an acquisition of the business. This provided CfE Fund A with an excellent opportunity to achieve a full cash exit after only seven months, generating an exit multiple of 1.3x and an IRR of 69%.

In September 2009 Maven led a £2m mezzanine investment on behalf of CfE Fund A into Documetric Limited. The business is technology led, designing and outsourcing payment processing, transactional and managed services, for use in secure data management and finance applications. The investment was used to support the growth of the business by providing funding for new IT systems alongside additional working capital.

In early July Documetric announced the reverse acquisition of a listed business, Intelligent Environments Group plc. Additional funding was raised through a share placing, enabling CfE Fund A to achieve a full exit, and generating an IRR of 19%. The enlarged Group (renamed Parseq plc) was readmitted to AIM on 22 July.

Andrew Craig, Maven Partner for Scotland and the North of England, said: "We are pleased to announce these two successful exits on behalf of CfE Fund A. Both Documetric and Vero are high quality businesses which we have enjoyed working with, and we wish both companies every success for the future."