Private equity firm closes Manchester office

NBGI Private Equity has closed its office in Manchester.

The private equity arm of the National Bank of Greece opened its doors in the city three years ago, bringing in former Octopus Investments director Joe Bergin to head its northern operations, which were based at Bruntwood’s Lowry House building on Marble Street.

However, Bergin, who had previously worked on 3i’s European buyouts team as well as holding corporate roles at Astrazeneca and ICI, is understood to be on gardening leave after leaving the firm at the end of last month. He had led the office’s sole deal completed during that period – the management buy-out of Preston-based electrical engineering contractor T Jolly.

Mark Owen, investment director at the firm told TheBusinessDesk that the closure of its northern office did not mean that the firm was no longer covering the north of England, though.

“In the current encvironment where deal flows have tightened we want to apply our resources more effectively ,” said Owen.

“Myself and  a colleague, Richard Morley, will be up here quite regularly so we’re not decreasing our resources. If anything, there’ll be two of us covering the North West now, rather than Joseph covering the whole of the North.” 

He said that the firm did not intend to let the contacts contacts which Bergin “had worked hard to build over the last three years” go to waste.

“We will utilise those moving forwards,” he said.