DunPort raises €283m to lend to Irish SMEs

DunPort Capital Management, a specialist asset manager, has raised €283 million to lend to small and mid-sized businesses.

The funding round for Elm Corporate Credit, which will be managed by DunPort, attracted a number of domestic institutional investors, and the funds will be used to provide flexible debt capital solutions for SMEs and mid-sized corporates across Ireland. The fund will target businesses with revenues in excess of €5 million “that require debt to fund scaling of their activities through investment and development expenditure, acquisitions, recapitalisations or to resolve legacy financing issues” DunPort said.

DunPort, a locally owned, managed and funded non-bank credit platform, was founded last year by Pat Walsh and Ross Morrow, former senior executives of BlueBay Asset Management. Since 2013, Bluebay completed 35 transactions, with a combined value of € 420 million, with 23 borrowers through its corporate credit platform, BlueBay Ireland Corporate Credit I (BICC).

“We are in active discussions with a number of potential borrowers and we are looking forward to building on the track record of BICC as Ireland’s leading alternative debt capital provider,” Mr Morrow said.