What founders, families and boards ask us

A private holdings firm acquires and owns companies directly on its own balance sheet, holding them for the long term rather than for a fixed fund period. Harthwaite is a London-based private holdings and advisory firm that buys, backs and counsels enduring businesses across the United Kingdom and Europe. The closest analogy is a long-established family holding company: a patient, permanent owner rather than a temporary one.

Traditional private equity raises a fund with a fixed life — often around ten years — and a mandate to return capital to its investors within that window. That creates pressure to grow quickly and sell on a schedule. Harthwaite invests from a permanent pool with no fixed end date, so we can hold a good business for a decade or more and never force an owner to exit before they are ready. The difference shows up most in the moments that are hardest for owners: when the calendar says “sell” but the business says “not yet”.

Both, depending on what the owner wants. For our private holdings portfolio we acquire majority or full stakes in profitable, founder-led companies. For our growth and venture activity we take minority positions in scaling, capital-efficient businesses where the founder wants to keep control. We also act purely as an adviser where no investment is wanted at all. The structure follows the owner’s goals.

We look for established, profitable, owner-led businesses with real customers and dependable cash flow. Our focus is on professional and business services, specialist manufacturing and engineering, technical and trade services, health and care services, property and real assets, and software and information businesses. We are generalists by discipline but concentrate where we can add more than capital.

Indefinitely, where the business continues to compound well. Because we use permanent capital rather than a fixed-life fund, there is no contractual pressure to sell at any given year. An exit, if it ever happens, is timed for the business and the owner — not for our calendar. For many holdings, the right answer is simply to keep owning them.

Our advisory practice gives owners, boards and family principals strategic, transaction and capital counsel on the largest decisions they face: ownership and succession, buying or selling a business, financing and recapitalisation, and governance. We advise as long-term owners rather than transaction-hungry intermediaries — and we will say plainly when the right answer is to do nothing at all.

Send a short note to info@harthwaite.net, call us on 050 168 5444, or message us on WhatsApp. The first call is informal, confidential and entirely without obligation. Many of our best relationships begin years before any transaction, so there is no need to wait until a decision is imminent — an early conversation is usually the most useful part of the process.

Yes. We advise family principals and family offices on the ownership, succession and financing of operating businesses, and we co-invest alongside families where a long-horizon, aligned partner is wanted. Discretion and continuity are central to how we work, which makes us a natural counterparty for principals who value privacy and patience.

Our principal focus is the United Kingdom and Europe, where our team is based and our network is deepest. We also have a presence in the United Arab Emirates through our Dubai office and our operating company, European Technical. Where a strong opportunity sits outside these regions, we will consider it, and we will be honest about whether we are the right partner.

Discretion is our default, not an add-on. We work from our own balance sheet rather than a syndicate of strangers, decisions are made by the people you meet, and we are happy to operate under an NDA from the outset. Specific individuals and commercially sensitive details are introduced only once a relationship is underway and trust is established.

Usually the opposite. Our preferred partners are owners who want to keep running their businesses, and we back management rather than replacing it. Where a founder wants to step back gradually — for retirement, a new venture, or simply a lighter load — we structure succession around that timeline rather than our own, and we help develop the team that will carry the company forward.

You can reach us by telephone on 050 168 5444 (internationally, +971 50 168 5444), by email at info@harthwaite.net, or by WhatsApp. We have offices in London and Dubai and are available Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00 UK and UAE business hours.