Private equity house plans to invest £100m in businesses in region

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

The move comes after another year of strong deal-making for Livingbridge.

During 2018, the Northern team at Livingbridge worked across the country to help deliver investment of £252m across a number of businesses including, loveholidays, Helping Hands and Coversure.

Livingbridge investee companies have also been active, with Southern Communications completing five acquisitions.

Finally, four exits have been achieved over the course of the year, delivering an aggregate gross return of 3.6x on original investments.

These include 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 from 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.”