In October 2014, Aldridge Wealth made a direct enterprise investment into Sunbird Business Services, a construction and support services platform being built by Michael Aldridge and William Sykes. Sunbird will focus its activities solely in East Africa, where Michael and the balance of the management believe the market environment is akin to the internet boom of the 80’s and 90’s, outsourcing opportunities in the UK where demand far outstripped supply for new service provisions.

Sunbird has successfully closed their raise of $8m – made up of strategic African investors, all of which have an intricate knowledge of the Sub-Sahara, as well as detailed experience of the valid services that Sunbird intends to supply. This combined with the collective experience of the on-ground operating companies that Sunbird will now acquire gives them a collaborative platform to exploit this market opportunity.

Sir Rod Aldridge OBE said: “We believe there is a real opportunity for Sunbird to build an operational platform providing support services for organisations working in the area. From my experience of building Capita, this will put them in a strong position to shape the market and build a prominent place for the group.”