Member Article

North West inward investment climbs significantly

Inbound investment in the North West increased from £497 million in 2012 to £1.2 billion in 2013, figures from Deloitte indicate.

Key inbound transactions during 2013 included the sale of Lancashire-based support services company Enterprise Group Holdings to Madrid-based Ferrovial for £385 million and the sale of Phones 4u’s Crewe-based insurance arm Lifestyle Services Group, in a £107 million deal.

On the other hand, North West investors ploughed nearly £3.6bn into overseas business last year, spread across 33 deals.

Figures from Deloitte show the sum was largley attributable to the acquisition of Indian business, Hindustan, by North West-based Unilever.

The value of outbound deals increased ten-fold from 2012, when 27 deals totalled £365 million. 39% of all transactions were made with Europe, and the US made uo nearly a quarter of the total deals.

Aziz Ul-Haq, corporate finance partner at Deloitte in the North West, said: “The latest figures demonstrate just how desirable North West businesses are to overseas investors and the region continues to be one of the strongest in the UK for international M&A.

“With signs of optimism in the economy, management teams are more open to exploring opportunities overseas and the quality of deals has improved. M&A remains on the agenda for many corporates both in the UK and internationally, which should drive incremental activity in 2014.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .