West Coast Capital launches

West Coast Capital, a GBP200 million fund, has been launched to invest in retail, property, leisure and technology. West Coast Capital, based on the west coast of Scotland, is not open to external investors and is currently made up of over GBP20 million worth, at cost, of investments made over the last two years by the wealthy businessman, Tom Hunter. These investments were made through Hunter’s personal investment vehicle TBH Trading.

Hunter sold Sports Division for GBP290 million in 1998 and himself collected GBP260 million from those proceeds. He is also chairman of the Entrepreneurial Exchange.

Hunter has invested a portion of his personal wealth in the fund and, instead of opening the fund to external investors, the fund will work with a range of institutions and what are termed “major Angel investors”, on a co-venturing basis.

The investment policy, which will be put into practice by Hunter and Jim McMahon, will be for a hands-on approach. McMahon was a tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and for the past five years he headed a team at PwC advising entrepreneurs and their businesses.