Beechbrook Capital, the specialist direct lender, has reached the first close of its second UK SME Credit Fund, with commitments of £128m. The Fund has also made its first two investments, in Hosted Desktop UK and Gravity Global.

Beechbrook’s UK SME Credit II supports small and medium-sized businesses in the UK with a turnover of between £10m and £100m and EBITDA of £1m and above. It will provide mainly senior secured loans to non private equity-backed companies to support acquisitions, buy-outs, shareholder re-alignments, refinancings and general expansion plans.