I’m back. A few weeks holiday (traversing the USA) and a week back to catch up.
I have been thinking alot lately about the mezzanine, the middle. Not the big, not the small….but the medium. What am I referring to? Finance or Investment. There seems to be a plethora of small or even micro investment out there today along with the always available large scale investments. What appears to be lacking is a meaningful mezzanine level of finance and funding for social entrepreneurs. I classify mezzanine, in this case, as £400,000 – £6,000,000.
Perhaps I should re-look at Xigi and further investigate the finance/funding network map they are building, but I cannot see the funding/finance for these middle level types of projects. Our own project, Harehills Middle School (£4.5M) is combining a cocktail of funding, finance, equity, and sweat to achieve its goal with every piece precariously stacked upon the other. Wouldn’t it be easier to go to one source for a deal like ours? This would provide one master, one partner, and free up more time to develop the project.
It appears some progress is being made in the social enterprise sector, but my favorite comment of the week, from a high street bank in a real meeting: "We can provide your project (social or otherwise) with a 20 year bank note on your building if you provide us with 100% occupancy consisting of 20 yr pre-lets, and we take a charge on the building."
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