FINANCE house Zeus Capital added another string to its bow with a '25m swoop on property finance firm, Catalyst Securities.

The acquisition of Catalyst, which provides bridging loans, could not have been more straightforward - the two businesses share a car park at West Riverside, Manchester.

Zeus Capital, which is set to launch its own '50m+ private equity fund in the first half of the year, has bought an 80 per cent stake in Catalyst, and will expand the business.

Chairman Ian Currie: said: "We know the Catalyst people well - they are literally on our doorstep and we park our cars in the same place. It is an excellent business, and brings diversity to our offering. It also fits in well with the other parts of the group."

The addition of Catalysts' 12 staff to the Zeus team takes staff numbers at the firm to 35.

The company, which also has a London office, typically finances property deals worth between '500,000 to '2m. It has a loan book of over '15m. Mr Currie added: "It will be a core part of our business, and we expect to take the loan book to around '25m fairly quickly."

He revealed that Zeus Private Equity, which is headed-up by Gary Tipper, and will be the only fund with its headquarters in Manchester, is making good progress.

"We've had to go through FSA approval, which takes time, but the response to it has been good from institutions and private individuals." Backers include venture capital heavyweight Jon Moulton.

Mr Currie recently netted over '2.3m through the sale of some of his stake in Floors 2 Go, one of the businesses Zeus took to the Stock Market. Since then he has donated '500,000 to the NSPCC. Tweet