Legal & General : backed Pemberton fund targets £500m to stimulate mid-sized UK business growth

28 September 2016

Legal & General Capital (LGC), the principal investment arm of Legal & General Group, has backed a second fund by Pemberton which plans to lend £500 million to mid-sized UK businesses to support their growth. The commitment follows LGC's investment in Pemberton's first, pan-European fund which has currently raised around €1billion and has already invested over £180 million into UK firms. Pemberton expects to hold a first close of the new fund before the end of 2016.

LGC's commitment to Pemberton aligns with its strategy to invest in socially and economically useful enterprises with a focus on housing, infrastructure and SME finance. Acting as a catalyst for business growth, LGC targets achieving attractive risk-adjusted returns on its investments whilst creating longer-term investment opportunities for other parts of Legal & General Group and institutional investors.

Paul Stanworth, Managing Director of Legal & General Capital (photo, top right), said: 'Economic growth in the UK relies upon the success of small and medium sized businesses but too often such enterprises are starved of funding. Whether companies are looking to expand, launch new products, buy another business or invest in new talent, growth can only come when there's investment. Pemberton, which is backed by Legal & General Capital, has already been helping businesses across Europe and now with our backing in this fund are focused in particular on supporting UK enterprises.'

LGC took a 40% stake in Pemberton in 2014 to support the growth of its mid-market lending platform, accelerating its ability to lend directly and provide a new source of institutional funding to businesses over the long term. Pemberton, which acts as an alternative to traditional bank finance, aims to play a key role in investing in and supporting dynamic businesses and the UK economy where there is a significant lending gap. Out of its first pan-European fund, Pemberton has already supported the growth of 11 businesses across Europe, and within the UK has made seven loans across five sectors including across the healthcare, telephony, industrials and hospitality & leisure sectors.

ENDS.

For more information please contact:

Tom Gough, Head of Communications, Legal & General Capital and LGIM Real Assets
Tel: 020 3124 2777

Notes to editors:

Legal & General Capital

Legal & General Capital (LGC) focuses on direct investments in key sectors, particularly housing, infrastructure and SME finance. These reflect our aim to invest for the long term in economically and socially useful assets, to secure competitive returns and to create new asset classes for Legal & General's varied investment requirements, for our partners and for the wider marketplace. We work closely alongside other businesses within Legal & General to ensure the broadest range of skillsets are deployed on any project and to utilise principal investment and asset management synergies across the Group. Investments to date have included housebuilder CALA Homes, a Build to Rent joint venture, urban regeneration projects at MediaCity/Salford and Bracknell, SME finance group Pemberton and clean energy firm, NTR.

Pemberton Asset Management

Pemberton Asset Management Holdings Limited ('Pemberton') is an independent alternative asset management group providing finance to the European mid-market sector. Pemberton uniquely blends asset management and banking expertise and offers mid-market companies in the UK and Europe an alternative to bank finance. With banks increasingly retreating from new corporate lending, access to financing for thousands of Europe's mid-market companies has become severely restricted.