Business Growth Fund (BGF), a UK-focused corporate venturing fund backed by four banks, has invested £2.25m ($4m) in Aubin, a local supplier of specialist cementing and stimulation chemicals used in drilling and preparing oil and gas wells for production.
In addition to BGF’s equity investment, Bank of Scotland has provided Aubin with a £500,000 debt facility through the UK government’s Funding for Lending scheme. As with BGF’s first oil and gas sector investment in Stats Group, the company said, “this is indicative of how BGF can work in partnership with banks to help unlock more credit for [small and medium-sized enterprises] SMEs like Aubin”.
Through BGF’s Talent Network, Aubin has hired Graham Philip as non-executive chairman. Philip is deputy chairman of Ashtead Technology.
Duncan Macrae, BGF’s investment director who has joined the board of the company, said: “Aubin is a business with huge potential which has struggled to grow beyond a certain point due to capital constraints. I’m particularly excited about the opportunities for the company in the subsea sector where its innovative gel technologies should result in both cost savings and safety enhancements.”
The advisers to the transaction were Johnston Carmichael, Pinsent Masons, Blackwood Partners and Campbell Dallas.