The North West operation was established in 2000 when the Manchester office opened. Since that time the activity has been phenomenal with the regional team completing over 30 investments, committing over £400million of equity and generating over £180million of capital gains.
2012 was a record year for LDC’s North West team with investments in a variety of businesses including the £11million MBO of Metronet, the UK’s most trusted wireless providers and the MBO of Bifold Group a leading manufacturer of switching instrument valves and pumps for the oil and gas industry.
The team has also made some successful realisations with the exit from kidsunlimited and Direct Group. kidsunlimited, a global provider of child care and early education was sold for a cash consideration of £45million and since the original investment grew revenues by 40% and opened a total of 15 new sites. Direct Group was sold to Ryan Speciality Group and since the investment sales grew over 100%, employees increased from 70 to 450 and they completed a number of bolt-on acquisitions.
Working alongside the local community, our management teams and the regional business community the LDC North West team are determined to source and complete further high quality transactions.
In 2012, the team, with the support of the local community were awarded ‘Private Equity House of the Year’ and ‘Deal of the Year’ for Bifold Group at the Insider North West Dealmakers Awards.
Carl Wormald is the Director for LDC in the region.