INTERNATIONAL in investment group, Apax Partners, is setting up a venture capital arm in Dublin. The company, which will trade as Apax Partners Capital, is due to open for business next week with up to Pounds 60 million sterling (Pounds 66 million) available to Irish companies seeking investment funds.

Apax plans to employ a designated team of up to five people in its Irish company, which will be managed by former DCC executive and Irish entrepreneur, Mr Pierce Casey. The new company has been approved by the Central Bank to commence operations immediately.

Mr Casey, who has been based in London for seven years, said the company would be offering a range of corporate finance services and an international network of contacts to Irish companies and entrepreneurs. It would also act in an advisory role - to investors seeking opportunities in Ireland, he said.

In the future, Apax will also consider setting up an operation at Dublin's International Financial Services Centre, most likely in the corporate treasury sector.

Apax is typically looking for venture capital deals of between Pounds 2.5 million and Pounds 10 million, and will be mainly targeting Irish publicly-quoted companies, according to Mr Casey. The company had already got a small Irish client base, he said, and was advising up to six companies at the moment.

It is focusing on companies in sectors such as health care, information technology and computer software, telecommunications and media. Mr Casey said the company would be working closely with Irish-based merchant banks, stockbrokers, intermediaries, solicitors and accountants to develop its business.

The group had a portfolio of high net-worth individuals who were also looking for investment opportunities in Ireland, he said. At the moment, he estimated that up to Pounds 18 million was available from this source for investment in fast-growing companies.

These investments would average at between Pounds 500,000 and Pounds 1.5 million in companies identified by Apax. Its investors, according to Mr Casey, will be looking for relatively high returns on these investments, typically of up to 30 per cent a year.

Mr Casey, an accountant, has worked in Ireland, Bermuda and in Britain. In Ireland he was a former executive director of the venture capital group DCC, where he was a director of several of its investee companies. In Britain, he bought out the corporate finance and investment business of the Equity and Corporate Finance company in 1996, which was subsequently taken over by Apax. Mr Casey retains a 50 per cent share-holding in the Irish company, Apax Partners Capital, and has a number of other investment interests. Mr Casey (42) is a native of Dungarvan, Co Waterford.

Apax Partners Capital is an Irish registered company and will be regulated by the Central Bank. The international Apax group has offices throughout Europe and in the US and manages funds of over 51.5 billion (Pounds 1 billion).

The new Irish company will form part of the Apax international network which has offices in London, Leeds, Manchester, New York, Paris, Munich, Zurich, Philadelphia and Tel Aviv. It will thus offer clients access to overseas capital markets; its London arm specialises and invests in growth companies and technology stocks - some of which have floated on US markets, and hightech is one target sector in Ireland.