Richard Branson to become private equity fund partner

Richard Branson is making his first move into private equity as a partner by seeking €500m (£440m) from institutional investors to buy into consumer businesses.

The Virgin founder will become a partner in a new fund co-managed by Metric Capital, a London-based investment firm with about $2bn (£1.5bn) of assets.

The fund will look for investments of up to €2bn in companies that Branson can help grow faster with his knowledge and network, the Financial Times reported. It will look for deals in luxury goods, leisure, food and drink and other consumer businesses.

Branson will have an unspecified minority stake in the fund and will be an active partner. He has known Metric’s founder John Sinik for two decades since Sinik’s days at UBS, the FT said.

Metric’s “experience in the rapidly changing consumer and digital markets is particularly attractive and I look forward to helping John and his team with his new fund”, Branson told the FT.

Private equity funds are raising record amounts of capital to satisfy the demands of investors seeking yield at a time of persistently low interest rates.