Braveheart slips into red on poor trading at Envestors

Braveheart Investment Group slipped into the red after its subsidiary Envestors faced poor trading, knocking its shares by nearly a fifth.Braveheart, which finances small and medium-sized firms via equity capital and debt finance, made a pre-tax loss of £845,000 in the six months to September 30th versus profit of £67,000 a year ago on fee-based revenue broadly flat at £1.3m.It blamed £805,000 of the losses on volatile revenue at Envestors, which provides corporate finance advisory services.Braveheart has sold the business to its management after putting it up for sale in July but failing to sell it to two trade buyers.Braveheart's other businesses and products include Viking Fund Managers, Strathtay Ventures and the Growth Loan Fund, which has been managed by Strathtay and will be overseen by the group's Whiterock Capital Partners vehicle from next April.The group said 85% of its revenue was now based on contract fund management services, which makes revenue and cash-flow more predictable.Chief Executive Geoffrey Thomson said: "Whilst the financial climate remains uncertain, there are encouraging signs that the UK economy is picking up."Shares fell 3p to 12.5p at 15:21 in London.PW