News
Take on 2025 and ambitions for the coming year in the North East
12 Jan 2026
As featured in Insider.
LDC kicked off 2025 having just completed the exit and reinvestment in Lomond Group, as well as the merger of our portfolio company Connect Health and BGF-backed Healthshare to form Cora Health.
Gareth Marshall, partner and head of North East and Scotland at LDC, said the firm has “continued to support our portfolio companies with strategic acquisitions – backing Lomond through a further 12 acquisitions as it expands geographically across the UK, and supporting PDG Aviation, the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of aerial survey services, with its acquisition of Team UAV, a provider of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) solutions”.
When looking to invest, Marshall explained: “In general, investors are drawn to resilient and defensible businesses with strong management teams who have a clear growth strategy and the capability to deliver it – we’re seeing plenty of businesses in the North East that fit that profile.
“From a sector perspective, we’re continuing to see high demand from investors for businesses in healthcare, software and technology-enabled services.”
The firm’s pipeline is “strong” heading into 2026 as confidence picks up. The dealmaker said confidence was “impacted by macro-economic headwinds at the beginning of the year”.
The North East has a close-knit and thriving business community, including a strong network of advisors who really understand the region. It’s an environment that consistently generates strong investment opportunities across a diverse range of sectors."
Buy-and-build remains a trend in the region, and this is evident in LDC’s portfolio. “This year, we helped Lomond to acquire 12 businesses. Aspire entered 2025 having recently acquired Leeds-headquartered CloudCoCo, which added a new base in Yorkshire and brought in 300 new customers. We’ve now reinvested in the business to support its continued expansion through acquisition.
“We’re also seeing strong demand for development capital investments from businesses that have moved beyond the start-up stage and are ready to accelerate their growth. And there’s appetite for de-risking events, where founders and owner managers want to bring in a partner to help them scale without taking all the financial risk themselves.”
Marshall also noted Newcastle, as well as Durham, as “key centres for private equity activity in the region”.
He continued: “What’s encouraging is that these aren’t isolated pockets – there’s a genuine ecosystem developing across the North East.”
Looking to 2026, LDC wants to “maintain the momentum”.
“That means continuing to back ambitious management teams across the region and supporting our portfolio companies through their next phase – whether through acquisitions, organic expansion or a combination of both.”