If there is a success story to be told about the regions, then the north-west is as good a place as any to start with. Manchester has some 50 accountancy practices and more than 200,000 people working in financial and professional services. Pro-Manchester, a business and finance forum, says that 16% of all UK corporate finance deals are transacted out of the city. Private equity houses, stockbrokers, accountants and lawyers are lining up to service deals from both regional companies and enterprises from farther afield. The Big Four firms all have offices in Manchester, as do BDO Stoy Hayward, PKF, Baker Tilly, Grant Thornton and RSM Robson Rhodes.

The north-west has a strengthening reputation for AIM activity, for instance. According to research from Baker Tilly, 23 companies from the north-west were admitted to AIM in 2006, raising £254m between them, while in 2005, 24 companies from the region listed, raising £212m. The London Stock Exchange shows 132 AIM companies registered in the region. Only London has more.

Gary Houghton, head of capital markets north at Baker Tilly, says that the AIM advisory community has evolved to service the north-west’s strong entrepreneurial sector. He expects to see continued momentum. ‘The north-west is still doing very well and continues to produce good quality businesses that investors will be attracted to,’ he says.

While recent figures paint a healthy picture, Clive Brook, corporate finance partner at PKF in Manchester, says that companies in the region have come round to the idea of AIM slightly later than their southern counterparts. Historically, he says, companies in the north have had a dynastic culture.

Often established to take care of future generations, they have tended to remain under family control. But the growing number of flotations shows that there is a cultural change underway. ‘Initial northern reticence may be declining and we are seeing an increasing number coming to market,’ he says.

Also significant for the region’s reputation for AIM expertise is the number of international companies that are finding their way to AIM via Manchester. Brook devotes time to attracting business from the Pacific Rim, for instance, and says he is one of a growing number of professional advisers courting overseas business. AIM’s lighter regulatory regime makes it a less expensive proposition than the US’s NASDAQ, for instance, where compliance costs relating to Sarbanes-Oxley could easily outweigh the potential benefits for smaller concerns. PKF acted as reporting accountant for West China Cement on its AIM listing in December last year. The IPO was twice over-subscribed and the company raised £22m on listing. Its market capitalisation less than six months later stood at £105m.

While there is a more than adequate supply of reporting accountants for due diligence and other preparatory work, as well as plenty of legal advisers in the north-west, one potential sticking point for companies seeking a listing is the availability of nominated advisers (nomads). AIM companies must have a nominated adviser for as long as they are listed on the exchange. According to figures from the LSE, Manchester has seven nomads – the largest group outside London (equal second with Birmingham), but small change compared to the capital’s 90-strong nomad community.

Brook says that, while home-grown businesses would probably prefer to see a larger nomad community, for the most part people realise that they may have to travel to find the right one. Nomads have a regulatory responsibility to ensure that a company’s business story makes them a suitable candidate for listing, so there is an element of selection involved.

The region has also seen some exceptional private equity deals over the past two years, particularly in the mid-market. Ali Sharifi says that for deals under £100m there is ready access to capital in the north-west, but he believes London is still the most natural choices for deals over that threshold. That’s not to say that bigger deals are ruled out. According to the Centre for Management Buy-Our Research (CMBOR) there were six deals valued over £100m in 2006. John Hargreaves took his clothing retailer Matalan private in October in a £817m deal brokered by the Manchester office of PricewaterhouseCoopers. In one of the region’s biggest ever deals, John Caudwell sold his telecoms business to two private equity houses for £1.5bn.

Liverpool sale

More recently Liverpool FC was sold to American tycoons George Gillett and Tom Hicks. The £450m deal valued the club at £219m and put another £200m-plus on the table towards building a new stadium in Stanley Park. Colin Gillespie, corporate finance partner at PwC, spent two years advising on the deal, including helping evaluate bids from the two Americans and one from Dubai International Capital.

‘It was an absolutely fascinating story to be involved with,’ he says.

Gillespie says that if regional companies want to get the best deal, they should take advantage of the expertise available locally to help them review the wide range of options from outright sale through joint ventures to flotation. Many entrepreneurs want to take capital out their businesses without burdening their business with debt or resorting to an outright sale – and a good practitioner will help them evaluate their choices.

For those that do want out, there has never been a better time to sell, says Jonathan Boyers, corporate finance partner at KPMG in Manchester. The 12 venture capitalists active in the region will have a good understanding of your sector and business, but it is also possible to widen the pool, as the region has done a great deal to attract attention from London.

Apart from that, he says, it’s all down to good governance. ‘Make sure your business can be marketed to both trade buyers and VCs and that you have good management, business plans and housekeeping in place,’ he says.

Nomads (nominated advisers) in Manchester include Altium Capital Ltd, Brewin Dolphin securities, NM Rothschild, WH Ireland and Zeus Capital