Hicks Muse donates

Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst has donated GBP100,000 to The Prince’s Trust, the UK’s leading youth charity. The money will be committed over a five-year period towards the charity’s business programme. These funds will be matched by the UK Government with a further GBP100,000 under an agreement made at the outset of The Prince’s Trust’s Business Expansion Campaign launched in 1999 by the Prince of Wales and the UK Prime Minister. This GBP200,000 will fund at least 60 start-up companies by investing an average GBP3,300 in each one.

The charity has an initiative to help fund 30,000 start-up companies by 2005. In order to achieve its goal The Prince’s Trust is aiming to raise a total of GBP100 million, of which the Government has pledged GBP50 million in matched funds. This funding will enable The Prince’s Trust to offer soft loans, business mentors (volunteers from the local business community) and ongoing advice and sales opportunities to young people wishing to set up their own enterprises.