Financial Times : Leaders and Letters

"Private equity funds help to bolster social enterprises"

2 March 2007

From Ms Adele Blakebrough

Sir, I was grateful for Martin Wolf's balanced assessment of the arguments for and against private equity "Barbarians at the gates: the balance of pros and const" February 28). Like others, he concludes with the point that funds need to argue their case more effectively before the bar of public opinion.

One element in that case that has certainly been well hidden is private equity's efforts in the field of corporate social responsibility, which tend to be greeted with a hollow laugh in most of the media. My experience, working with social enterprises in Britain in the last decade, is that private equity has shown itself wiling to invest not only its capital, but also the talents of its people, in helping social enterprises break through to a bigger scale of operation. Private equity has taken risks and innovated in a way that other donors would consider too risky.

Our own partnership in this area is with Permira, perhaps the most vilified of the UK funds. This has been in place for more than two years and has invested €1m as well as deploying senior staff skill into the individual organisations. The impact on four of the UK's most innovative social enterprises continues to be profound. Another point worth making at the bar of public opinion.

Adele Blakebrough
Chief Executive
CAN (Community Action Network), London SE1 0EE