Dunedin expands investment team

UK mid-market private equity firm Dunedin has expanded its investment team, hiring two analysts, according to a statement from the firm.

Sophie Chambers and Katie Chung are joining the origination team, which focuses on identifying and assessing new investment opportunities.

Chambers joins from Ennismore Capital, where she was an associate. Prior to that she was a member of EY’s corporate finance department. Chung was a senior associate in the corporate finance team at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The pair will be involved in sourcing deals across the UK and will report to partner and head of origination, Giles Derry.

“We are actively looking to invest our current fund in UK headquartered businesses with a market leading position in their niche,” Dunedin managing partner Shaun Middleton said. “Strengthening our origination function will enable us to expand our pipeline of opportunities further and continue the trend with our last three deals sourced off-market.”

Along with the hires Dunedin has also promoted two employees. Oliver Bevan, who joined Dunedin in 2007 and leads investment activity within the oil and gas sector, has been made partner, while Karen Darroch, who joined the firm from KPMG two years ago, has become finance and operations manager.

Dunedin closed its latest fund, Dunedin Buyout Fund III, on its £300 million (€418 million; $446 million) hard-cap in July 2013. The fund was oversubscribed, having exceeded its £250 million target. The fund invests in UK-based companies with an enterprise value of between £20 million and £75 million.

The fund has already made several investments, including acquiring a stake last summer in EV Offshore, a manufacturer of video cameras used to analyse problems in oil and gas wells. Last month Dunedin took a minority stake in construction dispute specialist Blackrock Programme Management, a deal which was sourced off-market via the origination team, the firm said.

In September 2014 Dunedin promoted David Williams to senior partner and took on two new hires, appointing Lorna Eltringham as investor relations manager and Jessica Hardy as an analyst. Williams came out of retirement to join Dunedin in 2010, PEI reported at the time.