Direct Capital is proud to announce that it has invested in Beca, one of New Zealand’s most iconic private companies.

Beca is an employee-owned engineering and management consultancy firm, employing more than 3,300 across 20 offices across Asia Pacific. Founded in 1918 by Arthur Gray, Beca is a market leader in its field, providing consultancy services across key sectors including Advisory, Building, Industrial, Transport and Infrastructure, and Water.

Direct Capital is pleased to announce its investment into Qestral Corporation, a Christchurch based operator of premium retirement villages in New Zealand.

Direct Capital today announced that it had completed the sale of its 60% shareholding in Hiway Group.  HGL is a recognised pioneer of ground stabilisation in New Zealand.

Fiona Rotherham, NBR: It’s well-known that New Zealand is a nation of small businesses but less well-known is the size of the private company sector.

Ross George, managing director of private equity investor Direct Capital, says the private company market is at least 10 times bigger than the listed company market in New Zealand although “a lot of people tend to think it’s the other way around.”

Brian Gaynor, NZ Herald: New Zealand PE, which has a far more sustainable growth model than the leveraged buyout model that dominates in other countries, has grown rapidly in recent years.

However, the growth could have been far greater if more than a handful of KiwiSaver funds allocated funds to this asset class. Private equity's medium to longer-term investment horizon is ideally suited to KiwiSaver and the domestic PE sector would get a major boost if more KiwiSaver funds invested in this asset class.

Jamie Gray and Liam Dann, NZ Herald: Local players like Direct Capital - which has more than $1.2 billion invested privately - raise much of their money from investors such as ACC, the NZ Superannuation Fund, pension funds, community trusts, utility trusts, iwi and even religious groups.

Private equity essentially just refers to capital that is not listed on a public exchange.

But as distinct from, say, a family business, private equity typically refers to funds and investors that directly invest in private companies, or engage in buyouts of public companies.

Direct Capital is pleased to announce that it has supported the management buyout of Marvel Packers (Marvel) by the current managing director, whose grandfather founded the business more than 80 years ago.