Investments

Private Company Investments

We take majority (not minority) stakes in private companies, normally either through seed capital or buying out a retiring founder/owner.

We have an advantage over large private equity or venture capital companies through our ability to acquire companies that might be too small for them, our long-term approach, and through using our operational experience to help management teams work through thorny issues.

Luxury Furniture, Art, Antiques & Accessories
Software platform powering multiple booking websites
Operates three hydro electric schemes in Scotland
Underwrites capacity in high quality Lloyds syndicates
Acquiring and developing vacant properties

Public Company Investments

Public companies have the advantage of liquidity, breadth, scale and less management time. They form an important part of the portfolio and provide collateral for Seventy Five Capital’s underwriting activities.

We believe we have an advantage over fund managers who can’t afford a bad quarter. We can take long term positions in unloved, often cheap companies with underlying strength and/or market leadership positions, and be patient whilst we wait for results and/or sentiment to turn.

In 2022 and 2023 we built stakes in companies with strong fundamentals and balance sheets that did well from buying habits in the pandemic, then experienced a downwards reversion to more normal revenue patterns, and in the process fell out of favour with investors, in some cases to incredibly low valuations. In 2024 and 2025 we started selling as these companies stabilised and hit our price targets, investing much of the proceeds in short-dated government bonds to keep our powder dry for attractive opportunities or the next cyclical downturn.

Examples of our current holdings include:

  • Admiral, no.1 in UK car insurance.
  • Deliveroo, future no.1 in take-away delivery.
  • Franchise Brands, a leader in international B2B franchises, no.1 in its markets.
  • IG, global no.1 B2C spread and CFD trading platform.
  • Marks and Spencer, future no.1 UK supermarket, 50% owner of Ocado in UK.
  • Ocado, no.1 in food delivery technology.
  • Oxford Nanopore, no.1 in long-read DNA/RNA sequencing technology.
  • Netflix, future no.1 global TV & film content owner and distributor.

Sold due to hitting our price target or buy outs:

  • 2024: Alphabet, no.1 in online search.
  • 2024: Microsoft, no.1 in business software.
  • 2024: Meta, no.1 in social media.
  • 2024: SCS, leading UK sofa retailer (company acquired).
  • 2024: Shopify, no.1 platform for ecommerce solutions.
  • 2024: Warpaint London, owner of leading cosmetics brands.
  • 2025: Hargreaves Lansdown, no.1 B2C UK investment platform (company acquired).
  • 2025: International Distribution Service (Royal Mail), no.1 UK delivery company (company acquired)