Private equity firm to invest £100m in Northern businesses

Private equity firm Livingbridge has announced plans to invest a further £100m in the North over the next 12 months.

During 2018, the Northern team at Livingbridge helped deliver investments of £252m across a number of businesses including, loveholidays, Helping Hands and Coversure.

The firm’s investee companies have also been active, with Southern Communications completing five acquisitions.

Four exits were also achieved over the course of the year, delivering an aggregate gross return of 3.6x on Livingbridge’s original investments.

This includes the £52m sale of Symphony Ventures in October to Sykes Enterprises, with a gross return of 2.4x on the firm’s 2017 investment and the sale of Key Travel in May, which generated a 3.2x gross multiple.

Matthew Caffrey at Livingbridge, said: “With increased competition across the market, both from the UK and overseas buyers, investing in the right assets for the right price has been particularly challenging this year.

“However, the investments we have made illustrate the appetite from ambitious management teams to continue to grow their businesses, despite economic uncertainty.

“The Northern regions remain extremely fertile ground for investment, and we are certainly looking to ramp up activity in the coming months. With the strengthening of our investment team following the appointment of Vernan Richards, we are anticipating a strong 2019.”