Private Equity
We invest in established businesses where active ownership can create material long-term value.
Bain finds that a deal which once needed 5% annual earnings growth to reach its target return now needs 10 to 12%. That work is done inside the business, by people accountable for it.
Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026, 23 February 2026
How an investment works
We invest as principal and work alongside management to strengthen the business over the ownership period. The North Axiom 8-stage model guides how we assess, prioritise and sequence operating improvement, technology and growth. Value can ultimately be realised through a sale, merger, spin-off or partial release.
How we underwrite an investment
We start with the quality of the business as it exists today, then assess the additional value that active ownership, operating improvement, technology and scale could create.
Sustainable earnings, reliable cash conversion, defensible demand and durable customer relationships.
Commercial, operational, financial, technology and management diligence, tested against downside and financing cases.
Operating improvement, stronger commercial capability, technology, automation, scale and new routes to market, treated as upside rather than value already paid for.
The ownership thesis, Day One plan, first priorities, decision rights, investment requirements and potential routes to value realisation.
How value is realised
Value realisation is considered throughout the ownership period. Where a transaction becomes appropriate, preparation begins before the formal process and is supported by professional advisers.
To a trade buyer or another investor.
Where combining businesses creates greater strategic or economic value.
Where part of a business can create greater value under separate ownership or within another organisation.
Realising part of the investment while retaining an ownership position.
What must be true before we invest
- Sustainable earnings and reliable cash conversion
- Durable customer relationships and defensible demand
- Customer and supplier concentration understood
- Key-person dependency identified and manageable
- A financing case the business can service as it stands
How we assess a business
- Acquisition screening and investment thesis
- Commercial, operational and financial diligence
- Technology, data and cyber diligence
- Management assessment and capability gaps
- Operational and commercial inputs to earnings quality and maintainable EBITDA
- Working capital, maintenance and growth capex
- Downside case and sensitivity
What additional value active ownership could create
- Stronger systems, data and management information
- Procurement leverage and improved supplier economics
- Finance, operating and technology capability proportionate to the next stage of growth
- Additional routes to market, customers and channels
- Digitisation, AI, automation and robotics opportunities treated as potential upside rather than value already paid for
What we build before completion
- Ownership thesis, value-creation priorities and operating assumptions
- What must be preserved, in writing
- Day One plan and decision rights
- Financing-case inputs and lender pack support
- Potential routes to value realisation and the conditions required to support them
Examples of experience behind the investment side
Direct ownership brings the judgement that comes from being accountable for the whole business: understanding how it makes money, what customers value, where performance is constrained, how capital should be deployed and which changes will strengthen the business without disrupting what already works.
The other perspective comes from leading complex businesses through transformation, regulatory scrutiny, market entry and major transactions across 60+ markets. Enterprise leadership brings the disciplines needed to modernise operations and technology, strengthen management capability, scale across markets and prepare a business for its next stage of growth or ownership.
This experience comes from direct accountability for businesses across manufacturing, retail, hospitality, wholesale, distribution and trading. Direct ownership brings an owner’s perspective on how a business makes money, what customers value, where performance is constrained, how capital should be deployed and which changes can strengthen the business without disrupting what already works.
Direct ownership and operating experience
Food and drink manufacturing
- Business acquisition and modernisation: acquired an established manufacturer and led its move to AI-enabled operations
- Robotics and production automation: automated 80% of the production line using robotics and process automation, cutting costs 50% and accelerating time to market 30%
- Planning and decision intelligence: rebuilt planning, finance and data using predictive intelligence, improving inventory planning precision by 90%
- Digital growth and channels: developed direct-to-consumer capability alongside supermarket, retail and wholesale channels
- AI operating model and controls: established the AI strategy, data requirements, decision rights and controls required for deployment
Convenience retail and hospitality
- Acquisition and repositioning: acquired underperforming sites and developed them into stronger operating formats
- Site transformation and value realisation: converted existing property into a full-format convenience business, developed the operation and subsequently realised the investment through sale
- Multi-site operations: operated a portfolio across major UK convenience brands
- Procurement and supplier management: developed long-standing commercial relationships across major food, retail and wholesale suppliers
- Hospitality operations: built and operated hospitality businesses covering sourcing, margin, labour, property, customer experience and day-to-day operating performance
Wholesale, merchandising and production
- Wholesale and distribution: built and operated the business end to end across commercial performance, P&L, working capital, people and premises
- International production and sourcing: produced branded merchandise and promotional goods for major automotive, luxury fashion and consumer technology customers
- International supply chain: managed Asian sourcing, importing, distribution and merchandising across international markets
Foreign exchange trading and research
- Investment and risk management: built and operated a proprietary foreign-exchange business covering portfolio strategy, capital, liquidity, risk and P&L
- Portfolio execution: managed major currency exposures through periods of market volatility, delivering 6% annual returns while managing liquidity and market risk
- Predictive research: developed an independent research programme applying statistical methods to forecasting
Enterprise roles behind the operating model
Global insurance
- M&A integration and separation: led technology, operations and risk across mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, covering integration, transition services and sovereign data requirements
- Acquisition integration: integrated technology, data and risk across a $67bn acquisition serving 80 million members, including competitor-data ring-fencing required by competition commitments
- Carve-outs and standalone capability: separated $6.3bn and $5.36bn businesses across six Asia-Pacific markets, established standalone systems and exited transition services three months early
- Global capability centres: built international delivery capability across India, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong, migrating 1,200 roles, cutting run costs 21% and improving digital product time to market 11%
- Platform modernisation: rebuilt claims, customer operations and service technology for 1.1 million customers in India, retired the legacy platform within regulatory cost requirements and supported a business growing 28% annually
- Market entry: built technology, operations and control capability required to meet Saudi Arabian regulatory and localisation requirements for entry through a licensed branch
- Digital platforms and new revenue: scaled an API-first platform to 250,000 customers across Asia, the Gulf and 16 African markets, reducing local deployment cost and opening claims-processing fee income
- AI and cloud controls: established enterprise controls across 30+ markets covering data residency, cybersecurity, model risk, third-party risk and regulatory readiness
- Technology and AI decision controls: established control standards, risk reporting and capital-allocation challenge across international joint ventures and a statutory data and AI board
Investment and wholesale banking
- Operating-model redesign: redesigned accountability across 1,100 roles using a Basel-aligned control model, separating business ownership from independent oversight and reducing headcount 29%
- Regulatory remediation: led operational and technology remediation across 60 markets under supervisory oversight, redesigning risk classification, accountability and executive reporting and reducing risk exposure 17%
- Board assurance: strengthened board risk, audit and remediation reporting, reducing high-risk exposure 26% and audit findings 15%
- Supplier risk and automation: automated production controls and assurance across more than 50 tier-one suppliers, improving thematic and concentration visibility and reducing run costs 35%
- Product approval redesign: embedded compliance and architecture requirements into product approval, reducing the cycle from twelve weeks to six
- Shared services and cost transformation: consolidated technology controls into a common service model, reducing costs 22%
- Technology resilience: sustained 98% uptime across fixed-income trading platforms and reduced priority-one incidents 31%
- Supervisory remediation: led testing, evidence and control implementation under regulatory oversight, engaging regulators in the US, Hong Kong and Singapore
- AI-enabled intelligence: built machine-learning capability for earlier identification of cyber, geopolitical and fraud threats and scaled it across 30+ markets
- Credit and capital decisions: led wholesale credit decision forums under $20m delegated authority, connecting risk appetite and capital allocation with 4% business growth
Energy trading and utilities
- Risk and capital: established an enterprise risk and decision framework that released $15m of capital for reinvestment and reduced risk exposure 34%
- Operating-model integration: consolidated trading, retail and wholesale technology and operations into shared services, reducing expenditure 24%
- Technology modernisation: migrated mission-critical trading platforms to hybrid cloud and removed $22m of legacy run costs
- Payments and security: implemented controls protecting £2bn of card transactions and supporting £1.2bn of public-sector contracts
- Critical-infrastructure security: helped shape security requirements for the national smart-metering rollout
Consulting and professional services
- Capability build: established a technology-risk capability of 150 people on a $40m cost base
- Client transformation: led technology, operating-model and risk transformation across banks, exchanges and industrial businesses
- Commercial growth: client mandates contributed 8 to 12% of annual consulting revenue
- Post-merger integration: led rationalisation following a major acquisition, delivering a 14% cost-efficiency improvement
- Regulatory and data transformation: delivered government, critical-infrastructure and banking data-protection mandates
Global telecommunications
- Global technology integration: standardised networks and applications and integrated acquisitions across more than 65 countries
- Cost and capacity: reduced costs 18% while increasing network capacity 19%
- Critical-infrastructure security: delivered lawful-intercept capability and operated a government threat-intelligence exchange