Ian Kerr - Founder
EMAIL: Ian.kerr@beltrae.com Tel. 02890 921282
Ian is a founder shareholder of Beltrae Partners. Ian graduated from Queen's University in 1987 with a PhD. He subsequently joined JP Morgan, the American investment bank, in London to specialise in corporate finance. Ian spent 5 years with JP Morgan working in London and New York. Ian returned to Belfast in 1993 to create a corporate finance team for Price Waterhouse and was made a partner in the firm in 1996.
The team became the market leader in N.Ireland and completed a number of ground breaking deals such as:
- 1993 MBO of Ben Sherman for £8m
- 1994 MBO of Belfast International Airport for £33.5m
- 1996 Sale of Belfast International Airport for £107m
Following the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand in 1998, Ian headed the Corporate Finance team for the merged firm in N.Ireland. During this time he led and completed a number of innovative transactions, such as:
- 1999 MBO of Balcas Timber
- 2001 Sale of BCO Technologies plc for £101m
- 2001 Sale of DNA Ltd to UTV plc for £4.25m
- 2001 $11m start-up finance raising for Avalanche Technologies
- 2002 MBO of CTS Ltd from Galen plc for £130m
Ian advised on the first PFI project to complete in N.Ireland (Royal Victoria Hospital car park) and went on to advise on 7 other completed PFI projects including, schools (Drumglass, St Genevieves), Higher education (BIFHE, NWIFHE), water (Kinnegar), DVTA & Land Registry.
Since forming Beltrae in 2003, Ian has completed over 150 transactions, including:
- Acted for Relay Software Ltd on sale to Applied Systems Inc, a major US multinational company.
- Acted as a NED and Chairman of PathXL Limited for 11 years and prepared the company for its eventual successful sale to Philips - the golbal multinational healthcare company.
- Advised the RUAS on the sale of its Balmoral site to a property development joint venture.
- advised Irish Life Plc on a significant investment in a GB based new start-up venture
- advised Avoca Handweavers Ltd on its sale to Aramark Inc
- advised Relay Software Ltd on the sale of a majority shareholding to Hg Capital
- advised Towergate Group on acquisition of Dawson Whyte insurance brokers
- advised Omiino Ltd on its sale to Xilinth Inc (sum undisclosed)
- advised Golf Holdings (Winemark) on aquisition of Russell Cellars Ltd. (sum undisclosed).
- advised BT PLC on aquisition of BIC Systems Ltd. for £17.1m
- advised on MBO of Brookvent Manufacturing Ltd.
- created and advised on buyout of Botanic Inns Group
- advised on sale of three of Ireland's leading consulting engineering firms - Kirk McClure, Morton and Ferguson McIlveen and PH McCarthy Consulting Engineers Ltd
- advised Glover Site Investigations Ltd on acquistions of Ground Restoration Ltd in Bristol and Discovery Drilling Ltd
- advised on sale of Campbell Freight Ltd and Campbell Freight Ireland Ltd
- advised on the sale of Finlay Communications Ltd and Finlay Communications (Ireland) Ltd
- advised on sale of Hamilton Shipping Group to Denholm Group
To date Ian has completed over 225 corporate and property transactions with a combined deal value in excess of £3bn. Outside of Beltrae Partners Ian sits on a number of boards as a non-executive director, including:
- PathXL (Chairman) 2008 to 2016 when the company was successfully sold on to Philips.
- Neurovalens Ltd (Modius Health) (Chairman)
- NI4Kids Ltd (Chairman)
- The Brunch Box Sandwich Company Ltd (Chairman)
- Queen's University - QUBIS Investment Committee member
- Techstart NI (Advisory Board Member)
- BPL Investments Ltd
- Chef Investments Ltd