The BDO Development Capital Fund is leading a €7 million equity investment in Multihog, which includes €1m of EIIS funding from the Davy EIIS Fund, as well as new investment from the existing Multihog shareholders including Enterprise Ireland.
Established in 2008, Multihog designs and manufactures a range of multi-purpose tractors used for a variety of tasks such as snow ploughing, weed control, street cleaning, grass mowing and patch planing.
The company said the new equity will be used to accelerate Multihog’s international expansion plans through Europe and North America as well as the continued development of new product lines.
Multihog is led by Jim McAdam (Managing Director) and Gerry McHugh (Technical Director) and employs 50 people in Dundalk. The company envisages expanding employment to around 90 by 2023.
Andrew Bourg, Investment Director of the BDO Development Capital Fund and Director of BES Management which manages the Davy EIIS Funds, commented: “Multihog is a prime example of an indigenous, highly innovative, export-focused company that is primed for worldwide success based on class-leading products manufactured in Ireland.”
In Association with
Jim McAdam said: “We are committed to focusing our efforts on expanding into new markets across the globe and on scaling up our production to match demand.” Eversheds and KPMG acted for The BDO Development Capital Fund while Multihog were advised by Grant Thornton and law firm Byrne Wallace.
Multihog Ltd booked a loss of €179,000 in the year to February 2016, bringing accumulated losses to €4m. Equity invested in Feb. 2016 was €4.55m. Taxpayers are into the venture for over €1 million after Enterprise Ireland invested €250,000 in 2009, €500,000 in 2010, €150,000 in 2011 and €251,000 in 2016. The state agency most recently invested €150,000 in September 2017 and €100,000 in November.
The BDO Development Capital Fund is a €75m fund aimed at investing development and growth capital in established, mid-sized and high growth Irish companies to support and accelerate their export growth plans. The fund forms part of the government’s Development Capital Scheme, an initiative under the Action Plan for Jobs through which a total of €225m is being made available to mid-sized Irish companies with significant growth potential.
As part of this scheme, €75m in funds from the Department of Jobs through Enterprise Ireland will be matched with €150m of private sector funding for investments in Irish companies through a series of different funds. The fund capital sources include Enterprise Ireland, Bank of Ireland, CRH plc, Glanbia plc and Glen Dimplex.
The other companies invested in by the BDO fund since it was launched in 2014 are Version 1 (IT Services - €8m in 2014); Lifes2Good (Health & Beauty - €5m in 2015); Perigord (Life Sciences Packaging - February 2016); Obelisk Group (Telecoms & Utilities Infrastructure - €3m in April 2016); Netwatch (IT- remote visual surveillance- €9m in July 2016); Broderick’s (Consumer Foods - €3.2 million in February 2017); and Blueface (IT & Software – proprietary cloud communications network and platforms - €10 million in March 2017).
Photo: Jim McAdam (right) with Andrew Bourg
