Northern Ireland business owners were urged to take advantage of development capital and private equity investors’ increasing appetite to invest in Northern Ireland at a conference organised by Carson McDowell and Goodbody Stockbrokers.

Guests at The Growth Equity Conference in Belfast heard from the managers of eight successful private equity and development capital funds who are keen to invest in growing Northern Ireland businesses.

The conference also heard from the CEOs of businesses which have successfully taken on external funding, including Brendan Mooney, chief executive of Kainos and winner of the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Richard Gray, partner and joint head of Carson McDowell’s corporate team, said: “Despite the current challenging business environment, many of our clients continue to look for new growth opportunities and they need capital from a range of sources to accelerate those plans.

“Northern Irish firms in some sectors would traditionally not have considered taking equity investment from external providers, but that has changed and equity is becoming an increasingly attractive option – with clients such as RiverRidge Recycling, SISAF and Lowe Refrigeration among the firms who have recently attracted significant investment from major funds.

“As Northern Ireland’s economy comes to terms with Brexit and other global economic changes, we will need more of our businesses to scale up and to achieve their growth targets in an accelerated timeframe. That can only happen with access to the right level of funding and greater understanding of what can be gained from taking on equity investment.”

Don Harrington, director with Goodbody’s investment banking team, added: “Goodbody research would suggest there are at least 200 NI companies that would be attractive investment opportunities for private equity investors.

“High growth companies looking for funding to expand internationally, mature family owned businesses considering selling to management teams, profitable companies selling minority or majority equity stakes and existing institutional investors seeking an exit. All of these investment opportunity types are being considered by our private equity investors in Belfast.”