A responsible business
Economic benefits
Our overriding responsibility is to maximise value for our investors. To this end we create companies with real growth potential that will bring benefits to everyone involved in our investments.
We’re proud of our record in this regard. For example, total employment across our UK portfolio has grown on a like-for-like basis by 12% or an average annual rate of 3 to 4%.
We invest heavily in the growth of our businesses. Capital expenditure per company in the last year of our stewardship was typically double that of the year before we invested.
We are also very proud of our low loss rate. Even in the rare cases where we have lost part of our equity capital in the UK and France, there has been no loss borne by the other stakeholders – employees, pensioners, suppliers and senior lenders.
We also make sure our companies are run well, with properly functioning boards involving an independent chairman or Non-Executive Director, usually one of our Operating Partners. Mid-market companies do not typically benefit from this sort of governance; it puts our companies in good shape for further growth and development.
Transparency
We are at the forefront of moves to make our industry more transparent and accountable, as recommended in the Walker Report in 2007. Although the Walker recommendations were aimed at much larger Private Equity companies than Duke Street, we’ve taken on board it's recommendations – for instance publishing an annual report and publicising details of our performance.
Greater transparency can only help people understand our industry and the benefits we bring. That in turn will help us to prosper, encouraging more management teams to think about working with us and attracting new investors to our funds.