Corporate finance professionals attending the Access to Alternative Finance Seminar, hosted by Professional Liverpool’s Corporate Finance Group hear of a growing pipeline

Private equity investors are increasingly looking for deals in the Liverpool city region, leading local dealmakers claim.

Corporate finance professionals attending the Access to Alternative Finance Seminar, hosted by Professional Liverpool’s Corporate Finance Group, heard the level of Merseyside transactions had risen significantly over the past 12 months.

Changing times

Matt Noon, partner at law firm Hill Dickinson, said: “Dare I say it, but in recent years it has been said that Liverpool lags behind Manchester when it comes to private equity investment.

“It wasn’t too long ago when deals such as the Business Growth Fund’s investment into Hobs Repro and Palatine’s investment into MJ Quinn were seen as the exception rather than the rule for Liverpool – but I’m pleased to say things are changing.

“Over the last 12 months we have seen unprecedented activity in the private equity market with multiple PE investment deals taking place in the region but it’s important that this continues.

“We need to raise awareness of the options that are out there from crowd sourcing for smaller ventures, to local funds such as MSIF to the bigger funds evidenced by NorthEdge and LDC.”

Major deals

NorthEdge has recently been involved in three high-profile investments, one with Future Industrial Services, another with Abbey Logistics and one with Chester based ITC Luxury Travel in a deal which was handled by Liverpool advisors.

Other significant transactions included LDC’s deal with ChargePoint Technology, Paine and Partners’ deal with Meadow Foods and HgCapital’s strategic buy-in to insurance technology firm, Vast Visibility.

Mr Noon was joined at the event by Chris Rea, senior campaigns associate at Seedrs, Michael Dimelow, co-founder and head of investment at Accelerated Digital Ventures, David Parr, relationship director at Barclays and Steve Allen, head of sales & marketing at Bibby Financial Services.

Strong pool

Matt Pomroy, investment manager from Foresight Group, which invested into Merseyside based diagnostic imaging service provider, Med Imaging Healthcare at the end of last year, was also a speaker at the seminar.

He added: “There is such a strong pool of innovative businesses along with an excellent bank of advisors in the Liverpool city region meaning that there should be a wealth of opportunities here for PE houses.

“The biggest deals in Merseyside over the last 12 months cover a broad range of sectors from software to logistics and dairy products to hospitality and retail.

“This should clearly send a message that there are a wide variety of businesses out there primed for investment.”

The Access to Alternative Finance event, which was the third of its kind in Liverpool, has proven again to be incredibly popular with businesses looking to find out more about the different types of investment options in the city region.