LDC Birmingham to lead £200m investment drive
The Birmingham office of private equity firm LDC is spearheading a commitment to invest £200m in specialist engineering and manufacturing businesses over the next three years. The project will be led by the firm's West Midlands investment directors Steve Aston and Rob Schofield.
Although the investment commitment extends to companies throughout the UK, LDC said businesses located within the "manufacturing heartland" of the Midlands wiould be a key area of focus.
Darryl Eales, chief executive of LDC, said: "Manufacturing is very much part of LDC’s heritage and we have consistently invested in the sector even when it became less fashionable to do so. Although LDC is a generalist private equity investor, the specialist engineering and manufacturing arena has long been a core area for our investment.
"This is a national initiative for LDC, which will be led out of the Midlands by a team with considerable investment experience in this sector. We are looking to partner with high quality management teams looking to private equity as a source of funding to facilitate the expansion of their businesses into new markets and territories."
The £200m commitment will focus on mid-market UK businesses in the £10m to £150m enterprise value range. The firm said that it was looking for companies which have specialist manufacturing capability in niche sectors such as aerospace and defence, oil and gas, or power generation.
The investment drive will also be supported by LDC’s Asian operation, which is based in Hong Kong. This international dimension will allow companies to extend cross-border relationships with manufacturing and supply chain businesses located in high-growth Asian economies, said the private equity firm.
Martin Draper, managing director of LDC in the Midlands and two-times winner of Insider's Dealmaker of the Year Award, said the pledge demonstrated "a clear commitment to, and confidence in, UK manufacturing".
"LDC is committed to supporting the growth of high quality manufacturing and specialist engineering businesses," he said. "Many UK businesses have developed best in class manufacturing technology and capability and are extremely well placed to deliver strong and sustainable growth across both the established and emerging growth economies.
"Specialist engineering and manufacturing remains one of the UK’s most dynamic industry sectors with UK businesses proving resilient through the recent economic downturn and benefitting from demand from emerging economies."
LDC has completed more than 125 transactions within the sector in its 30 year history. Existing investments in this sector account for more than 20 per cent of the portfolio by volume and more than £250m of investment.
The Midlands team’s existing investment portfolio includes Wolverhampton-based Nuclear Engineering Services, an engineering solutions group focusing on the nuclear, marine and defence sectors; Kee Safety, a global provider of safety solutions headquartered in Meriden; and AIM Aviation, which specialises in the design and manufacture of cabin interiors for commercial airlines with operations in the East Midlands.
