Manchester-based personal injury law firm, Express Solicitors, has signed a revolving credit agreement with The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) worth £8m.

The RBS funding will support the firm and give it the flexibility to achieve its ambitious growth plans. It will help finance a strategy based on both organic and acquisition-based expansion, as well as make funds available for increased marketing spend and the recruitment of more employees from graduates to partners.

In September, Express Solicitors Group announced its best ever financial results from April 2020 to April 2021, with group turnover up by 14% from last year to £31.3m and caseloads growing by 36% to 19,015. During this financial year, Express Solicitors employed a further 162 members of staff including a clinical negligence partner and in-house barrister and made 56 promotions, six of these to partner.

Express Solicitors is proud to have achieved all of this, despite all the challenges brought by the pandemic and firmly believes that with the backing of RBS it can go on to gain a greater share of the market in 2022.

James Maxey, managing director at Express Solicitors said: “RBS has given us its funding support for over 21 years and has been integral to the firm’s success. It has enabled significant growth through acquisitions and helped us in implementing a solid marketing strategy, training programmes that help us promote from within and recruiting the best talent out there to service both new clients and our loyal customer base.

“We’ve always been a very ambitious firm and this £8m revolving credit agreement with RBS will not only help us to expand but, crucially, while doing so, retain the high service levels our clients have come to expect.

“We’ve worked with RBS since we first set up the firm in 2000 and its team has continued to work alongside us to develop packages that support our long-term growth strategy; the help and support they’ve provided us along the way has been second to none.”

Paul Gaynor, Relationship Director at The Royal Bank of Scotland said: “We’re delighted to provide funding that will support Express Solicitors in continuing to do brilliant work. We’ve known the management team for many years and are very confident it has the experience, expertise, ambition and resources to meet its objectives in what can be a challenging market.”

Express Solicitors has 389 employees and is ranked in The Lawyer Top 200. Its lawyers and the firm are recognised in The Legal 500 and the firm is noted in Chambers and Partners. Express Solicitors specialises in personal injury and accident claims, clinical negligence claims and serious injury cases.

Express Solicitors has a large number of roles available to people already in the legal sector, or those looking to join for the first time. For details on positions from admin assistants and customer service representatives, to solicitors, IT technicians and more, visit the careers page: https://www.expresssolicitors.co.uk/about/careers

Manchester-based team commits to increasing its support to the region’s medium-sized businesses

The North West team of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity firm LDC has celebrated a record year, completing transactions with a combined enterprise value of more than £500m in 2021.

In its annual performance summary, LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, said it will increase its support for mid-market businesses across the North West, underpinned by a commitment to invest in at least 100 medium-sized businesses nationally over the next five years.

In 2021, the team’s investments included Rochdale-headquartered wireless surveillance products supplier WCCTV, Warrington-based preventative healthcare specialist PAM, Alderley Edge-based software company IEG4 and developer of mobile, console and PC board games Marmalade Game Studio.

The firm also exited successful partnerships with Middlewich-based SRL Traffic Systems, after supporting the business to more than double revenues through increased investment in its fleet and network of depots, and the sale of Speke-based ChargePoint, following a four-year partnership that saw the specialist manufacturer develop new products and accelerate a successful international growth strategy.

In addition, LDC’s North West team helped its portfolio to acquire businesses to build scale and resilience. It supported environmental compliance specialist SGI Compliance to make an acquisition to expand its services into industrial water treatment and helped marketing group MSQ to make three acquisitions to further enhance its services.

To support LDC’s commitment to increase investment in mid-market businesses across the region, the North West team recruited two new investment professionals. Grant Goodwin and Camilla Greenwood joined the team as Investment Managers. Grant joined from Ardenton Capital where he was a Senior Investment Manager in the Manchester office, while Camilla previously spent over six years at PwC working in Transaction Services and External Audit.

Dale Alderson, Partner and Head of North West at LDC, said: “We have been really impressed by the desire from management teams to deliver on their growth strategies over the past 12 months. The resilience and ambition of the region’s business leaders has been remarkable, and we’re proud to be celebrating a record year in supporting local businesses to achieve their growth targets.

“We are committed to increasing our support of North West businesses and have the expertise and resources to help management teams across region to realise their ambitions.”

Nationally, LDC backed 19 new management teams and invested more than £400m during 2021, despite continuing disruption caused by the Coronavirus. It also provided additional capital to existing portfolio companies to complete 65 acquisitions, helping them to scale and diversify.

Across the UK, LDC generated over £870m of proceeds from a total of 18 exits during the year with an average money multiple of 2.5x which it said underlined its value-adding approach. The companies it sold on average increased revenues by 64% and grew employee numbers by 60% during their partnership with LDC.

Commenting on LDC’s performance, LDC Chief Executive Toby Rougier said: “Despite the ongoing challenges in many parts of the economy, our teams increased investment and support into mid-market companies across all the regions of the UK.

“As the UK looks to recovery and growth, this army of medium-sized companies will be critical. It is the backbone of British business and the engine room of our economy, teeming with talent and packed with potential. Given their ability to scale, these are the companies that, with the right support, can turbo-charge the recovery.”

LDC has also committed to ensuring its investment activity makes a meaningful contribution to the UK’s environmental and social challenges. The firm has pledged to ensure its own operations are net zero by 2030 and to support portfolio companies to reduce emissions by 50% in the same timeframe.

LDC’s partnership with The Prince’s Trust – which helps young people across the UK explore and launch their own business through start-up grants, volunteering and mentoring – has supported more than 1,600 young entrepreneurs in the last three years.