DunPort raises €283m to lend to Irish SMEs

Number of domestic institutional investors have invested in Elm Corporate Credit

The funds will be used to provide flexible debt capital solutions for SMEs and mid-sized corporates across Ireland.
The funds will be used to provide flexible debt capital solutions for SMEs and mid-sized corporates across Ireland.

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.

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DunPort will continue to advise BlueBay on its management of BICC’s existing portfolio of SME borrowers.

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan is a writer specialising in personal finance and is the Home & Design Editor of The Irish Times