Investment manager Braveheart quits Perth

STOCK MARKET: Aim-listed firm has switched headquarters to South Yorkshire

The financial services sector in Perth has been dealt a major blow after it emerged Aim-listed Braveheart Investment Group has quit the city.

The fund manager and investment group has operated from offices in the Fair City’s Dundee Road for more than a decade but has now switched its headquarters to Barnsley after its Scottish activity “diminished”.

However, the company is maintaining a Scottish link after switching its registered office address to the care of legal firm Dentons at 1 George Square, Glasgow.

Braveheart – which looks after total funds worth more than £71 million – said it will continue to manage money invested in Scotland from its new base in South Yorkshire.

Director Vivian Hallam – who also serves as chief executive of Strathtay Ventures which manages Braveheart’s operational functions and investment portfolio – confirmed the switch.

“The team had reduced steadily in Perth and the last one handed her notice in last year,” Mr Hallam said. “That was the last person left in Perth. “We are now operating from the office in Barnsley that we have always had, and that is the focus of our team.”

The £48m Finance Yorkshire Equity Fund is managed by Braveheart’s Viking Fund Managers division, as is the £5m Viking Fund and £1m Viking Loan Fund.

All three provide funding for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Yorkshire and Humber regions.

Mr Hallam said it made sense for the group to be physically located close to its principal operational base.

However, he stressed that existing Braveheart investors should notice no difference on a day-to-day-basis.

“It is business as usual, nothing has changed,” Mr Hallam said.

“It is just that our team in Scotland had diminished and we readjusted the operation.

“We have a number of investments on our balance sheet in Scotland and we also manage some funds in Scotland.”

Braveheart was formed in 1997 and it listed on AIM - the Alternative Investment Market – 10 years later.

Last June the group revealed it had returned to profit in financial year 2016-17 after racking up a £1.7m loss in the prior year.

However, its shares dived by almost 15% in October when it revealed lower first-half profits for the current year.

Shares in Braveheart closed down 1p at 18p yesterday.

business@thecourier.co.uk

Picture: Steve Macdougall. Top: Braveheart Investment’s former offices in Dundee Road, Perth, and, above, group chief executive Trevor Brown.