Press Releases

28 June 2005

ENTERPRISE FINANCE EUROPE FUNDS CONTINUED EXPANSION OF FINE COLOUR PACKAGING

Nottingham-based entrepreneurs Jan Ahmed and Jed Gisborne have an additional £3.225m cash injection from Enterprise Finance Europe (EFE), one of the UK’s leading asset based lenders, to fund the continued expansion of their business - Fine Colour Packaging.

The funding has enabled the pair to acquire 80 year-old Smurfit Cartons UK, formerly part of the Jefferson Smurfit Group. This follows their purchase late last year of Hill & Tyler, which was also funded by EFE. Over 30 new jobs were subsequently created as part of the acquisition.

Based in Essex, the £10m turnover company, which manufactures cardboard and paper cartons, predominantly for blue chip clients, employs 70 people. The new company will now be known as Fine Colour Witham.

The structured finance package, which included a combination of confidential invoice discounting, asset finance and working capital, was put together by a team at EFE.

Andrew Durbin and Simon Bursell of Smith Cooper Corporate Finance advised the purchasers on the transaction, and legal advice was provided by Rob Metcalfe and Mark Hughes of Browne Jacobson.

EFE commented “We are absolutely delighted to have been able to work with Jan and Jed again, this time on the acquisition of Smurfit Cartons. Although the timeframes were tight in terms of providing the right facility to fund the deal, we were able to gain great comfort from the capability and experience of Jan and Jed and we pulled out all the stops to make it happen. We look forward to working with them again in the near future.”

Adds Jan Ahmed: “We were extremely impressed with the speed with which EFE responded to our request. The opportunity to grow the packaging side of our business through the acquisition of Smurfit Cartons came about very quickly and we needed to move fast to secure the deal, and EFE were with us every step of the way.”