Cawsey goes his own way with investment venture
THE former investment services director at the St George Bank, Richard Cawsey, has given up his seat on the board of Stockford to set up his own private investment company.
Cawsey, who resigned his seat on the board of the accounting and financial planning consolidator last month, will head up the new venture, which will make strategic investments in companies either in need of a capital injection, or in the midst of a management buy-out or corporate restructure.
The group will then become actively involved with the management of the companies it takes an interest in, hoping to turn them around and generate a return on the initial investment.
“I enjoy getting involved in seeing ideas come to life, so what we will be looking to do is invest in opportunities where we understand we can add value and then we can actively help management to realise that value. We won’t invest where we don’t think we can add value,” Cawsey says.
Cawsey, who left St George in March after declaring he no longer fitted into the bank’s structure, says he gave up his position on the Stockford board to concentrate full time on the new venture.
“I made a commitment to my partners in this business that I would only concentrate my time on ventures that we have an interest in and we will likely make our first significant investment within about a month and if that is the case I would go up for re-election [at Stockford] and then have to resign and I think that would be inappropriate,” he says.
The new group will be funded exclusively by a number of private investors, both in Australia and offshore.
Cawsey says the group would aim to make only one or two strategic investments each year.
“We consider ourselves active investors that will take positions in one or two opportunities per year and get involved in them and then devote a fairly significant amount of time to each of them,” he says.
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