Eversheds Sutherland (International) advises British Business Bank on the structuring and launch of the £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), aimed at boosting the North of England's economy and helping the region's businesses realise their growth potential.

Based in Sheffield, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund will work with 10 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), combined authorities and Growth Hubs, as well as local accountants, fund managers and banks, to provide a mixture of debt and equity capital to northern-based small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). NPIF will provide funding to fund managers who will offer microfinance (£25,000 - £100,000), business loans (£100,000 - £750,000) and equity finance (up to £2m).

Initially announced in November 2015, NPIF utilises capital allocated to the 10 LEPs in the North West, Yorkshire and Humber and the Tees Valley by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Eversheds Sutherland team advised on the structuring and launch of NPIF, the procurement of the fund managers for NPIF and on its funding by ERDF, a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and an additional loan from British Business Finance Limited, a British Business Bank group company.

The team at Eversheds Sutherland was led by financial services partner, Ronald Paterson (London) on fund structuring and commercial partner, Bridgette Wilcox (Cardiff) on State aid, procurement and European Structural Funds. Partners Jason Wurzal (banking, Manchester) and Ben Jones (tax, London) supported. The wider corporate commercial team included legal director Shaun Jamieson, (Cardiff), principal associate Tim London (Cardiff), senior associates Sarah Black (London) and David Parry (Leeds), and associates Shelley Evans (Cardiff), Simon McHugh (London) and Emily De La Ronde-Wilton (Cardiff).

Ronald Paterson commented:

"The launch of NPIF is a major step in the evolution of support for SMEs in the UK and we were delighted to assist British Business Bank in bringing this ground breaking project to fruition. NPIF will provide smaller businesses with increased choice of funding and produce greater levels of investment across the Northern Powerhouse region."

Luis Martin, Director, Legal and Governance at British Business Bank, said:

"Eversheds Sutherland worked seamlessly across a number of disciplines to deliver an innovative funding structure. The region has enormous untapped economic potential that can be realised by improved funding options and opportunities. The legal skills deployed by the team enabled us to complete the launch of NPIF which will facilitate great growth of businesses in the North."