ICG Enterprise Trust Portfolio Manager Colm Walsh presented at the Proactive One2One Investor Forum on the company’s investment strategy, portfolio structure, and approach to shareholder value.
Walsh explained that ICG Enterprise Trust, established in 1981, has grown from £20 million to a portfolio worth around £1.4 billion without significant capital raises, instead compounding through reinvestment. He outlined the trust’s focused approach, saying, “We’re not investing in a broad swathe of private markets … it’s an approach that’s designed to optimise risk-adjusted returns.”
The strategy concentrates on buyouts of cash-generative, EBITDA-positive businesses in developed markets, primarily North America and Europe. Walsh highlighted the importance of backing top-tier managers with crisis experience and focusing on companies underpinned by long-term secular growth rather than cyclical trends.
He also discussed the benefits of ICG Enterprise Trust’s position within ICG, a FTSE 100 firm with over $120 billion in assets under management, which provides access to global deal flow and institutional infrastructure.
Walsh reviewed portfolio metrics, noting 11% revenue growth and 15% EBITDA growth across holdings, and pointed to recent successful realizations including Minimax and Datasite. On shareholder value, he stressed efforts to narrow the discount to NAV through buybacks and dividends, with £60 million returned in the last year.
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