Firm invests £450m despite market challenges

Private equity firm LDC has said its investments topped £450 million last year, despite challenging market conditions.

The firm, part of Lloyds Banking Group, invested £410 million in 17 businesses during 2024, with a further £40 million of follow-on funding.

It completed transactions in every region of Britain and in all of its core sectors, taking its three-year total of capital deployed to more than £1.2 billion.

As well as making new investments, it also helped its existing portfolio companies to make 49 acquisitions.

During the year, the firm completed 12 exits following successful partnerships where the exited businesses grew revenues by an average of 263% and created more than 3,380 jobs.

These transactions generated £670 million of exit proceeds and an average money multiple return of 2.5x.

Toby Rougier, chief executive at LDC, said: “Businesses faced both political and economic uncertainties last year, which created challenging trading conditions for many.

“Despite this, we continued to back new management teams in every UK region and helped our portfolio companies to grow.”