Irish companies seeking investment will be able to compete for a share of a new £340 million venture capital fund set up by international investment group, Apax Partners in London. The fund has been established for British companies, but up to a quarter, £85 million, has been reserved for companies outside Britain, among them the Republic.

Irish companies seeking funds can apply through Apax Partners Capital, Dublin, of which Mr Pierce Casey, the former DCC executive, is a 50 per cent shareholder and managing director.

One purpose of the fund, which Apax claims is the largest in Europe, is to invest in companies at an early stage of their development, particularly those in the high technology sector.

In addition, the money in the fund will be used for expansion capital and buy outs.

According to Mr Casey some research has already been done on possible deals in the Republic, although none have been concluded. Apax is typically looking for venture capital investment opportunities of between £2.5 million and £10 million and will be mainly targeting Irish publicly-quoted companies, according to Mr Casey.

With the current growth in the Irish economy, Mr Casey said, Irish companies seeking funds "were likely to be well received".

Apax Partners Capital is an Irish registered company and is regulated by the Central Bank.

Another company in which Mr Casey is involved, Fayrewood, a London AIM-listed computer services group, has acquired the entire share capital of Computerlinks, a specialist German computer networking company, for £1.8 million, plus 1,462,000 Fayrewood shares.

Fayrewood, which is advised by Apax, purchased Banque Magnetique in May of this year. Mr Casey is chairman of the company and owns 23.1 per cent of the company's share capital and is its largest shareholder.