NorthEdge hails ‘massive achievement’ of national award
PRIVATE equity firm NorthEdge Capital has landed another national accolade.
Building on its success in this year’s Rainmaker Awards , the Manchester based firm, was crowned Small Buyout House of the Year at the prestigious British Private Equity Awards 2015.
The national event, which was held in London, celebrates innovation and excellence in private equity, as well as honoring the industry’s ability to help build British businesses.
NorthEdge beat off competition from UK healthcare investor Apposite Capital and investment firm H2 Equity Partners, to take the award.
After raising its maiden fund of £225m, the firm has built a team of 20 across Manchester and Leeds. So far it has invested £140m in 11 deals, into well-known names such as Accrol Papers and more recently Total Fitness.
The judges said: “NorthEdge was a clear favourite. They have proven their investment strategy of targeting the North of England by the sheer number of deals they have executed over the past year. And it seems clear that the strategy will more than pay off over the coming years. This is a really excellent team which deserves recognition as a leading private equity house.”
Co-founder and managing partner Grant Berry said: “We are delighted with this national recognition, it’s a massive achievement because I think people forget we are a start-up. We have been working incredibly hard to deliver to our investors what we said we would do.
“Highlights for me has been building the high quality team and also how the portfolio is shaping up. The portfilio is very immature, but we are looking now at a couple of exits in the coming months which will be really important.
“I think we have proved there was a gap in the market for a locally-based private equity firm, focused purely on the North, where decisions are made here, not in London. I think management teams and vendors like this and it’s a real differentiator for us.”
The award for the firm came two days after Gareth Mobley, the boss of its investee company, DW3 Products, was named a national winner at EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
