Dow Schofield Watts, the seven-partner corporate finance boutique set up at Daresbury Park near Warrington in 2002, has raised an initial £4.68m for its first private equity fund.

The firm, which began the fundraising back in September, has said that it expects to close the fund later this year once it reaches a target of £10m.

Dow said that the fund would make investments of between £250,000-£1m in businesses that have an enterprise value of £2m-£10m. He told Crain’s that it was not worried about whether it held a controlling stake in the investment or not.

“We’re more concerned with getting good investment opportunities for our high net worth individual investors,” he said. Dow also added that in terms of which sectors in which the business would invest, there were no “no-go areas”.

The fund will be managed by its own fund management arm, PHD Equity Partners, which is one of a number of additional service lines added by the practice in recent months — it has also added a debt advisory arm and a financial due diligence unit. He said that Dow Schofield Watts’ seven partners had all invested in the fund alongside Lord Daresbury.

Dow added that the fundraising to-date had gone “relatively smoothly” despite the fact that it took place as Lehman Brothers collapsed and the government began its bail-out of the banking sector.

“I expected it to be much stickier,” he said. “But we had a very high acceptance rate. What we need now is a good deal flow.”