Par Equity<\/strong><\/a>, an early stage venture capital firm investing across Northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.<\/p>\nFounded in 2008 and chaired by Leith Robertson, the company has backed 61 firms, who have raised \u00a3219million in total.<\/p>\n
They employ a hybrid investment model, combining discretionary managed funds with the skills, expertise and contacts of the Par Investor Network.<\/p>\n
Their portfolio includes MoneyDashboard, who have been awarded funding to support those impacted COVID-19, and UnikLasers a leading-edge photonics company.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Of course, we cannot ignore government-backed institutions such as Scottish Enterprise, which, as we write, is leaderless and strapped for cash, and the Scottish National Investment Bank. (We wonder who insisted on including the word \u201cnational\u201d in their title).<\/p>\n
It took the government three years to get this show on the road, although the appointment of Willie Watt as Chairman was an inspired move.<\/p>\n
The bank\u2019s rationale is to transform an economy that has often lagged behind the performance of the UK as a whole.<\/p>\n
They say they will provide “patient capital” \u2013 long-term investment for businesses and projects on Scotland. They claim this is too often left aside by existing private sector investors. We suspect the private sector disagrees.<\/p>\n
Our one worry about this new institution is that is seems to be more driven by politics than business acumen and that is underlined by their claim that in its first decade they will invest in businesses and projects that \u201chelp Scotland meet its 2045 net-zero target, tackle place-based inequality and foster innovation in the country\u2019s businesses”.<\/p>\n
Chairman Willie Watt said he hoped the bank would eventually become a national, non-political institution. We shall see.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile it\u2019s down to the Souters and Rutterfords to help young businesses get their first steps on the ladder. Our money is on them but we would be delighted to see the Investment Bank become a real powerhouse.<\/p>\n
Our own company, Media House International, has just completed a project where a global investment business invested \u00a33billion in one of our UK clients and there is further investment to come.<\/p>\n
The deal was concluded in under six months and is just one of many the Americans have undertaken in the UK.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Government will give the Investment Bank \u00a32billion over TEN years. It sounds a lot to the man on the No 57 bus but, let us be frank, it will not transform a sluggish economy<\/p>\n
Report Writers:<\/strong><\/p>\nJack Irvine<\/strong> set up Media House International in 1991 after a successful newspaper career.\u00a0He trained on the Glasgow Herald and went on to hold positions at the highest editorial and management levels in Mirror Group and News International, including that of Editor, Managing Director and CEO.<\/p>\nHe was Launch Editor of The Scottish Sun in 1987, which went on to dominate the Scottish newspaper market. He was then CEO of News International Scotland with responsibility for The Sun, The Times, Sunday Times, Today and News of the World.<\/p>\n
Irvine has carved out a niche in crisis management and public affairs and in that role deals almost exclusively with Chairmen and Chief Executives both in Europe and the USA.<\/p>\n
The past decade has seen an increasing advisory role for Irvine, with political leaders in International Financial Centres. Today Media House International is operational in London, Scotland, the USA, Caribbean and Dubai.<\/p>\n
Irvine has held board appointments with the Scottish North American Business Council and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He was also a member of the Working Party examining the public perception of the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n
In the USA, he is a member of The Saint Andrew\u2019s Society of the State of New York and sits on the Man of the Year gala committee.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kristine Baekgaard<\/strong> is a Media House International (MHI) Consultant and recent graduate from the London School of Economics.<\/p>\nShe is the newest member of the MHI team, having graduated from the LSE in summer 2020 with a degree in International Relations.<\/p>\n
Before joining Media House, Kristine lived in the United States and Denmark and has worked for the Centre of Concern in Washington DC and with the Foundation for Women\u2019s Health Research and Development in London.<\/p>\n
She currently supports the MHI team across clients including Scottish Police Federation, Walker\u2019s Shortbread, Excalibur Healthcare Services and clients based in Scandinavia and Dubai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The COVID-19 pandemic has left its mark on nearly every sector in 2020, and the world of Scottish private investment is no exception. With the severe economic downturn and governmental…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7319"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16005,"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions\/16005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediahouseinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}