While London may dominate headlines in the UK’s financial press, the private equity landscape in Yorkshire is telling a compelling story of its own — one rooted in regional resilience, sectoral diversity, and a growing appetite for long-term value creation. This article marks the beginning of a new series exploring Yorkshire’s private equity environment, drawing on insights from corporate finance professionals, investors, and dealmakers who are committed to keeping investment and talent firmly anchored in the North.

As pressure mounts nationally around valuations, capital deployment, and exit timelines, the focus in Yorkshire is refreshingly grounded: backing real businesses, supporting growth with purpose, and building relationships that stretch beyond the deal table. Regional investors are increasingly leaning into their local identity — not as a limitation, but as a competitive advantage.

The Market Today: A Maturing Mid-Market Scene

Over the past five years, Yorkshire’s private equity market has matured significantly. Cities like Leeds and Sheffield are now recognised as established mid-market hubs, with growing clusters in Hull and York. According to KPMG, 13 buyouts were completed in the region in H2 2024, compared to just 7 in the same period of 2023 — signalling renewed momentum.

Deal flow has remained steady despite macroeconomic headwinds, driven by robust activity in sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and food & beverage. In 2024 alone, 45 equity deals were completed across Yorkshire and the Humber, totalling £107.5 million, though this was down 19.6% in count and 24.2% in value compared to the previous year.

Yorkshire continues to excel in founder-led and family-owned businesses — a natural fit for PE firms that offer more than just capital. Many of these companies are at a generational inflection point, requiring new leadership, strategic investment, or a platform for international expansion.

According to regional advisors, the market is currently shaped by two main forces: increased investor competition for quality assets, and a renewed focus on sustainable growth models over aggressive financial engineering. While larger, London-based firms continue to eye Yorkshire for acquisitions, the region’s homegrown players are prioritising a different goal – keeping businesses and their teams local.

What Makes Yorkshire Attractive?

With thriving businesses in the region, recognised by local and national Private equity houses and access to a strong local talent pool, Yorkshire remains fertile ground for long-term returns. This is especially attractive to CFOs seeking stable, scalable growth with clear value levers.

Crucially, many PE-backed businesses choose to remain headquartered in Yorkshire despite offers to relocate. This reinforces the message that value creation is happening in the region — and staying there.

Insights from Giles Taylor, Partner at KPMG

The Yorkshire and whole North East dealmaking community has grown and changed a lot in the past 20 plus years that I’ve been a part of it, mirroring in some ways the changes we have seen in the region as our cities have grown. Increasingly, businesses and private equity investors have come to choose the region as their home and sector-clusters have formed.

We have a vibrant and independent ecosystem that serves every aspect of the market. As well as its size, the deal market across the region is served by a rich pool of talent. It is bustling with private equity professionals providing capital, bankers funding growth, lawyers facilitating deals and corporate financiers selling businesses. Indeed, there are around 90 private equity, venture capital and family office firms headquartered or with regional offices right across the Yorkshire and North East region.

This region’s dealmaking community’s appeal extends far beyond its borders, with the region routinely attracting large international players who want to invest, and we are seeing a significant proportion of businesses being bought by an overseas buyer or investor as well as attracting interest from UK and regional investors.  

At KPMG we believe that our regions are important, so we have built strong sector knowledge, expertise and relationships into our local teams. All of our team are plugged into our global sector expertise, which means we can support the full range of Northern business owners and Private Equity investors from both a market-leading relationship and sector perspective.

We know that our clients and businesses tend to want to work with local advisers wherever they can, and we exist to help our clients in the region achieve their ambitions.  The combination of local advice, market-leading sector expertise and access to a global, multidisciplinary network is second to none and will further help to future-proof our region’s dealmaking community.

Expert Insight: Resilience Over Hype

Private equity experts working in the region highlight a few core themes shaping the current landscape:

• Valuations: Softening slightly, offering more realistic entry points for patient capital.
• Debt Markets: Tightening conditions are leading to more equity-led deals and creative funding structures.
• Succession Planning: Remains a top driver for deal flow, especially in manufacturing and B2B services.
• ESG: Rising scrutiny, but implementation varies widely by portfolio maturity.

Insights from Giles Taylor, Partner at KPMG

Building on the momentum of 2024 and bolstered by some positive economic data around inflation, interest rates, deal activity has picked up in 2025. Though clearly the impact of change to national insurance and the impact of US tariffs has dragged on business confidence and on some, their financial performance.

I expect valuation gaps to begin to narrow as private equity buyers try to build conviction for high quality investment opportunities in selected sectors and sellers seek to explore long-awaited exits.

Platform and buy-and-build deals will likely continue to dominate the deals markets as PE investors seek to drive growth through strategic bolt-ons, particularly in the Business Services and TMT sectors.

At the same time, we expect to see increased activity in the energy and consumer sectors as investors refocus to capitalise on increased government investment and rising consumer sentiment.

Based on our view of the market, here are three tips to help PE managers and company owners capitalise on the opportunities:

Find the right buyer

• Recent experience suggests that many successful processes start as a series of smaller bi-lateral conversations. This involves spending time with the priority buyers well ahead of the process to build their conviction and strategic rational for the acquisition.

‍Double down on due diligence

• Getting the right price and creating value from a deal requires buyers to have deep insight into the business and markets they are targeting. While speed may be important to securing a deal, it should not come at the cost of robust due diligence.

Extend the runway (if the conditions aren’t right for exit)

• PE managers will want to consider how continuation funds might help provide additional time for growth for their LPs (and themselves). Company owners may also want to consider whether a minority investment from a larger, more international PE funds could help provide additional support for value creation and overseas growth ahead of a future sale.

Looking Ahead: Opportunity and Caution

As interest rates remain elevated and global uncertainty looms, the outlook for PE in Yorkshire is cautiously optimistic. Dealmakers expect a continued flow of founder-led transactions, bolt-on acquisitions, and potentially more distressed opportunities in 2025.

Notably, new funding sources are emerging. In 2025, South Yorkshire launched two new £20 million investment funds to boost SME growth, while the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II has already deployed over £80 million to 200+ businesses across the North.

For CFOs, the opportunity is clear: partner with regionally grounded investors who offer capital with conviction, operational insight, and a commitment to sustainable value creation. Yorkshire may not seek the spotlight, but its private equity story is one that finance leaders can’t afford to ignore.

This article is the first in a series on the evolving role of private equity in regional economies. Future editions will spotlight specific sectors, transactions, and leadership journeys shaping Yorkshire’s investment future.

For more details on any of the details discussed, or to find out how we can help your business with their Executive Search needs, please contact:

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Gillian McBride

gillian@pratappartnership.com

07936364480