The Habit Group of fitness centres, based in New Zealand, is backed by Livingbridge, the private equity firmBritain’s private equity industry has stepped up its investments overseas in an attempt to escape lower expected returns in a post-Brexit Britain. Investments overseas by UK-based private equity firms rose by 55 per cent, from £17.1 billion to £26.5 billion, in the year to August 2019, according to research by BDO, the accounting group. That compares with only £7.9 billion put into new deals in the UK in the same period. The uncertainty made assessing the riskiness of potential deals more difficult, it said. While large private equity firms, such as Permira and CVC, have long been comfortable investing worldwide, their medium-sized…

Source: The Times January 20, 2020 23:59 UTC