LDC boosts presence in South-West

Mid-market private equity house Lloyd’s Development Capital (LDC) is boosting its presence in the South-West by opening a new office in Bristol and appointing Paul Oldham to the deal team.

Oldham joins from Grant Thornton Corporate Finance, where he built and led the firm’s eight-strong South-West and South Wales corporate finance lead advisory team.

Prior to that he spent 13 years at 3i, heading the firm’s Bristol and Cardiff offices, and was responsible for new investment and managing its portfolio.

Oldham’s 19-year career in private equity has seen him work on more than 50 transactions, including 3i’s £30m buyout of Swindon-based Early Learning Centre and the sale of Bristol-based confectioner Elizabeth Shaw and bioscience firm Tocris Cookson.

He joins LDC’s 12-strong investment team in the South as a director. The firm operates in Reading and Southampton and is set to move its Bristol office into new premises in Temple Quay.

LDC has invested more than £250m of equity in the region’s businesses over the past 10 years. In 2007, the team completed a number of local transactions, including backing the £67m buyout of Tredegar-based specialist outsourcing firm Penn Pharmaceutical Services; committing £50m to Epi-V, a Hampshire-based specialist oil and gas investment fund targeting investments of between £2m and £10m of equity in emerging technology and service companies; and selling its shareholding in Waltham Abbey-based Apollo Group Holdings, one of the largest and most successful providers of property services in the South of England.

Kevan Leggett, managing director of LDC, said: “We’re constantly building our regional strength and by significantly developing our presence in Bristol we’re signalling our appetite to consolidate our position as the leading investor in the region. In Paul, we’ve brought on board one of the region’s key dealmakers with a long track record of completing successful mid-market private equity-backed transactions.”