Thu 20th Oct 2016 - Imbiba fund seeks £10m for latest sector investments Imbiba fund seeks £10m for latest sector investments: Imbiba Partnership, which sold Drake & Morgan with a 5.7 times return for investors, has launched a new EIS fund seeking to raise up to £10m. Money raised will be invested in three existing trading companies and one new project the fund may invest in. The existing businesses are Wright & Bell, a large-format bar and restaurant business with its first City venue opening next month; Casper & Cole, a South American-themed barbecue restaurant and bar, set to open in Soho next month; and Albion & East, an all-day neighbourhood bar/restaurant opening in Hackney in December. The new project is a bar/restaurant business with leading social media aimed at post-university adults in their 20s. The minimum investment is £10,000 and the fund is targeting a 2.5 times return for investors – the investment time-frame is four to five years. The offer document states: “The Imbiba Partnership team has established an enviable track record, generating a realised average compound IRR of in excess of 35% per annum over 18 years. All returns exclude any benefit of EIS Relief, which would further increase the overall IRR. These realised investments have generated £38m of cash on a cost of £14m. The team’s most recent exit was the sale of the City-based bar/ restaurant business Drake & Morgan in 2013, which achieved a return on cash of 5.7 times (before EIS tax relief), for which it won the Best Exit Award at the prestigious 2014 EIS Association Awards. This year, Imbiba’s Darwin & Wallace has won Best Pub at the 2016 Bar & Restaurant Design Awards for its No.1 Duke Street site in Richmond. Additionally, it has been shortlisted for Growth Champion of the Year at the 2016 Growth Investor Awards, which recognise impact beyond investment in the UK SME investment management industry. The Imbiba Leisure Fund will capitalise on the London restaurant and bar sector, an area of investment where the Fund has succeeded previously. What makes London so appealing is it contains a young, affluent and diverse working population, in addition to a growing number of high-spending tourists each year. London’s bar/restaurant market is continuing to experience significant growth due to a number of factors – global city attracting high numbers of tourists, international business and events; population with higher-than-average disposable income and younger demographic compared with the rest of the UK; and growing ‘eating out’ culture due to an innovative London leisure sector creating unique dining experiences.” The Imbiba Partnership team consists of John Connell, Simon Wheeler, Fraser Bradshaw and Brian Phillips. More information on the latest fund can be found by emailing Martin Sherwood at msherwood@enterprise-ip.com