The last 12 months have marked another standout year for LDC, with our teams deploying more than £400m of investment to support the growth ambitions of new management teams and our portfolio companies.

We backed 19 new management teams across the UK in 2021, from the carve-out of British security systems manufacturer Texecom in the North, to our investment in specialist IT provider Sohonet in the South, and healthcare company Kingswood in the Midlands. Our diverse investments up and down the country once again underline the value of our regional model and diverse sector experience.

Across our existing investments, we continued to focus on helping management teams to scale, diversify and strengthen their businesses.

We supported our portfolio companies to make 65 acquisitions, including the sixth bolt-on since our investment for mobile comms business Onecom, and the third for water pump and pressure solutions business Stuart Turner.

Our investment teams worked alongside our Value Creation Partners – who provide specialist strategic and operational support – helping dozens of portfolio management teams to address new challenges and opportunities.

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LDC’s local presence in the North East was important to our close working relationship with the team and it has been incredibly helpful to draw on their tech and software expertise.”

Chris Rigg
CEO, Mandata

Our investment teams worked alongside our Value Creation Partners – who provide specialist strategic and operational support – helping dozens of portfolio management teams address new challenges and
opportunities.

Last year also saw us exit 18 partnerships, providing a successful outcome for management teams and a new partner for their next chapter of growth. Highlights included SRL Traffic Systems which more than doubled revenues by increasing its fleet, adding new depots and opening a new innovation and technical centre of excellence. We also exited healthcare communications consultancy Lucid after helping the business to grow revenues by 145%.

On average, the businesses we exited in 2021 increased revenues by 64% and grew their employee numbers by 60% during our partnership – proof of our value-adding approach to investing.

Working in partnership with these portfolio company management teams, we generated £870m in proceeds with an average money multiple of 2.5x.

Supporting British business

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£400m invested in 2021
19 new management teams backed
65 portfolio acquisitions supported

Of the 18 portfolio companies we exited:

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64% average sales growth
60% average growth in headcount
£870m proceeds generated