LDC committed to supporting more businesses across the West Midlands in 2024
Chris Handy, Partner and Head of West Midlands at LDC told TheBusinessDesk.com that the private equity investor is committed to increasing its investment activity in 2024.
2023 proved to be another positive year for LDC in the West Midlands. Despite well-documented headwinds faced by the economy, we continued to invest to support the growth ambitions of businesses across the region, and the management teams we partner with demonstrated a strong sense of resilience and determination to push ahead with their growth plans.
It’s pleasing to say that this momentum has flowed through into the new year. We are already starting to see signs of recovery in the economy, and activity is picking up. This year is shaping up to be busier than 2023 from a transactions perspective due to less economic uncertainty and the positive knock-on effect of improving investor and management team confidence.
We’ve kicked off 2024 with a healthy investment pipeline and we’re seeing a renewed sense of ambition from businesses across the West Midlands to explore private equity as a funding option to support growth, help with ownership transitions and realise value.
Targeting growth: stand-out sectors for 2024
While we can see investment opportunities across every sector of the economy, the West Midlands’ thriving tech sector continues to harbour huge potential, and this will undoubtedly capture the interest of investors in 2024. The opening of a new technology hub in Birmingham city centre later this year will bring a further boost to the region’s ambitions to become a technology superpower, and we can be proud of our growing reputation as the place to be for businesses that are shaping next generation technology.
There’s also an abundance of healthcare companies here that are flourishing. It’s a sector LDC knows well, having invested £350m in medium-sized UK-based healthcare businesses since 2013, and our partnership with Kingswood, the Worcester-headquartered business that sells products to help people with mobility difficulties, is a live success story.
At a more micro level, we’re also very fortunate that so many of the cities and towns across the West Midlands all have their own unique identities and business communities, and a good example can be found in Leamington Spa’s growing cluster of gaming businesses. Estimates that a further 500 game development jobs will be created in the town within the next couple of years mean this, amongst others, is certainly one to watch.
An investment partnership – right on the doorstep
The West Midlands is a heartland territory for LDC and, since opening our Birmingham office in 1989, we have invested more than £1.1bn to support almost 150 management teams across the region. We want to continue to be the leading private equity partner in the West Midlands and, as part of Lloyds Banking Group, we are fortunate that our evergreen funding model sets us apart and allows us to continue to invest – wherever we are in the economic cycle.
We know that the medium-sized businesses which form the backbone of our economy have an important role to play in the resurgence of M&A activity in 2024, and our team has the expertise, enthusiasm, and local market insight to help support their growth ambitions. These targets are wide-ranging and specific to each business, but they include everything from growth through acquisition and international expansion, to improving their ESG credentials, seizing the opportunities presented by advancements in AI and much more.
Take Independent Governance Group (IGG), the UK’s leading professional pensions trusteeship and governance services firm, which we backed the creation of early last year following the merger of Ross Trustees and Independent Trustee Services. Since then, our team has actively supported IGG to complete three significant and complementary acquisitions to help grow its team, client base and the range of services it offers.
Beyond business ambition
Our deep-rooted commitment to the West Midlands extends beyond the region’s ambitious management teams and we’re very proud to work closely with local charities and organisations to help support our wider community.
We have supported the Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity for over 10 years, which offers expert care to more than 90,000 children and young people across the country every year. This includes recently joining their Changemakers committee and we’ll be helping the hospital to invest in state-of-the-art, life-saving equipment. We’re also working with Birmingham Hippodrome, an independent charity that provides theatre experiences to young people and vulnerable adults across our local community, and Kids Village, a local charity that supports children with critical illness and their families by providing respite from the trauma of being in hospital.
LDC is a sponsor of The Business Desk’s West Midlands Business of the Year Awards. Find out more here.
