Equity house looks to Yorkshire for new investment opportunities

Patrick Leoni Sceti has taken stakes in four firms, including Wakefield-based Lifterz, but wants to put more cash into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in northern England.

His investment boutique, Leoni Sceti Group, also works in an advisory role and Mr Leoni Sceti describes himself as an "outsourced finance

director".

Earlier this year, he invested 150,000 in Lifterz, a 3.2m- turnover powered access firm. As well as taking equity, Mr Leoni Sceti took over as FD and has helped to simplify its credit facilities.

He estimates that the changes will help the business save 685,000 over the next 18 months.

He wants to spend between 500,000 and 700,000 on buying stakes in two more businesses in the first half of next year but Mr Leoni Sceti

also wants to raise another 5m to 7.5m in order to fund a new round of deals in the long-term.

Mr Leoni Sceti chose to invest in the region after carrying out a survey of 155 owners, with a turnover of between 1m and 50m. It found that 30 per cent of those in northern England said access to finance was their main concern, in contrast to only five per cent in the South-East and the Midlands.

He said: "There are a lot of companies that would benefit from the kind of thing we do. Clearly I will run out of funds eventually but from an

advisory role I think there is a lot of business to be done. It is a vote of confidence for them to have someone who will speak the same language."

Mr Leoni Sceti said that when taking stakes in businesses he looks for a credible management team, a good product and a firm where he can add value beyond his capital.

Lifterz, set up in 2007, is run by Malcolm Bowers, a veteran of the powered access market. Mr Leoni Sceti said that since he came on board he has helped it to slim its credit facilities from 112 to 17 while it has increased its fleet of machines from 350 to 450.

It has also bought C & G Platforms, a similar type of firm – which Mr Leoni Sceti said had no debt on its balance sheet – as Lifterz tries to reach a 30 per cent share of the powered access market by 2014.

Malcolm Bowers, managing director of Lifterz, said: "Funding constraints are still making growth challenging but since the Leoni Sceti Group got involved we have been able to open a few more doors. Their background in banking has brought a level of experience which

has really benefited our company."

Mr Leoni Sceti – the cousin of ex-EMI chief executive Elio Leoni-Sceti, although the former detergent company executive has no connection

to LSG – is based in London but is a regular visitor to Yorkshire.

He spends two days a month at Lifterz, but is also in the region for advisory work, which he said takes up about 80 per cent of his time.

"Lifterz represents a good platform for growth within the rental access industry and is well positioned to capture further value and market share in the next few years.

"There is a lot of entrepreneurial potential in the region. Unfortunately, because of macro-economic reasons, it is quite underused from a funding perspective."

LSG's other investments are in My Guide to Uni, a marketing tool for universities and higher education institutions, Get Pro Basketball, a

website for up-and-coming players and Rakusen Design, a software company behind performance indicators KPIzone and KPI community.

Patrick Leoni Sceti

Patrick Leoni Sceti, the son of a Malton woman, studied International Economics and Management at by Bocconi University (Milan) before working in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley between 2005 and 2007, where he worked up to 110 hours a week.

As part of the real estate team, he was involved in advisory roles on corporate finance transactions and private equity deals, when investing on behalf of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds programme.

He went on to work as a London associate for The Hillview Group, an independent corporate finance advisory firm acting for leading investors and companies in the estate, infrastructure and mining. Hillview also acted as strategic financial investor in transactions in these industries in Europe and in emerging markets.