ANGEL NETWORK TO EXPAND INTO MIDLANDS FOLLOWING £10 MILLION INVESTMENT

British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has announced a new commitment to Dow Schofield Watts Angels (DSW) as the first partner in its £100 million Regional Angels Programme.

DSW is one of the largest business angel networks in the North, managing investments on behalf of 90 investors, based primarily in the North West,

Pioneers

Harrison Clark Rickerbys (HCR) and Indian law firm, India Law Alliance have announced a collaboration to support clients in the UK-India corridor.

Nicolas Groffman, Head of International at HCR, said “I am keen to build on what we can offer clients in countries like India which are becoming increasingly important for our clients. Adding local legal capability in India is imperative for full service firms like ours.”

Anupam Dighe, founding partner of India Law Alliance, said: “I am looking forward to sharing experience with my UK counterparts and for my team of lawyers, in India to participate in HCR’s training programmes.”

Yorkshire and the North East. As a result of British Business Investments’ commitment, DSW Angels intends to expand its investment activities into the Midlands and the South West.

The £10 million commitment will be invested alongside the DSW Angels network into early stage businesses. This is expected to deliver almost £30 million of new funding for scale-up businesses in the regions.

The corporate finance team in the Midlands office of national audit, tax, advisory and risk firm Crowe is celebrating hitting £100 million in deal value in the past 12 months.

A quartet of deals in August saw Crowe smash through £100 million, with the team led by Partner Andy Kay advising on the sales of Protech, Walsall Pressings, DRB Engineering and a major service office sector sale to a private investor.

Midlands business advisory firm, Harrison Beale & Owen (HB&O), is also celebrating unprecedented growth in demand for business sales and acquisition support which has seen its corporate finance team expand significantly since launching five years ago.

In the last five years, HB&O has supported more than 200 projects, including in excess of 100 business disposals or purchases with a total value of £209 million.

Baldwins’ corporate finance team also recorded a landmark month in August after helping three Midlands firms to clinch multimillion pound takeovers.

Redditch-based geotechnical data company, Keynetix, was acquired by leading global infrastructure software firm Bentley Systems after receiving approaches from a number of suitors in 2018.

The collaboration will enable both firms to provide clients with multijurisdictional transactions. HCR’s international work reaches 80 countries through five worldwide hubs.

The other two takeovers were haulage firm MTH Express Services, acquired by transport company Walkers Transport and workshop equipment supplier Telford Group sold to quarrying machinery business Robinsons Longcliffe.