19 March 10
‘Raising Business Finance in the New Global Environment’ is the topic that Leeds’ key financial organisations will be taking to Barcelona for discussion with its Catalan counterparts and growing businesses next week.
With its well documented expertise as the largest business and financial centre outside of London, Leeds is taking the overseas initiative, as a part of the ‘Leeds in Barcelona’ festival of commerce and culture, to provide advice to businesses that are seeking to develop and grow. This will focus around alternative avenues for funding outside of the traditional banking facilities.
Members of Financial Leeds and expert guest speakers will talk about opportunities and the processes around raising funds through ‘business angels’ – something that Yorkshire already has a leading profile for. They will also discuss funding options through stock market listings, extolling the virtues of using Leeds based practitioners that are just as experienced but less expensive than London firms.
Howard Kew, chief executive of Financial Leeds said, “We are delighted to be involved in Leeds in Barcelona. Our delegation of 10 includes a varied cross section of the skills and expertise in the city. Our programme will be highlighting the quality and breadth of financial and professional services available in Leeds and promoting the value of Leeds as a centre of business excellence.
“The main event in our visit will be focussing on the capabilities of the corporate finance community and the opportunities for raising business finance. Before an audience of business and professional firms in Catalonia we will be extolling the benefits of using Leeds as a gateway to the UK.”
Keynote speakers will include Oliver Hoffman of Mazars and Dominic Searle of RMS Tenon.
Leeds in Barcelona is a major international business initiative organised jointly by Marketing Leeds and UKTI and follows Leeds in Milan which was launched in 2008. The three day event provides an effective platform for prominent business sectors in Leeds to present their capabilities, successes and proposition to Catalan business audiences. Leeds in Barcelona also incorporates the well established International Business Network (IBN) event where the UKTI will present sixteen UK companies in front of potential Catalan business partners to encourage international trade.
Leeds in Barcelona has a robust schedule of meetings and events including a presentation by Sir John Sorrell to support the establishment of Creative Leeds, public private partnerships seminar, a ‘meet the buyer’s’ workshop organised by Leeds Hotels Association, a prestigious civic reception, and an event on university- industry collaborations organised with a speaker from the University of Leeds. These are set to introduce hundreds of Spanish business leaders to Leeds, build relationships and develop commercial opportunities for both cities.
The cultural centrepiece event will the ‘Live from Leeds’ performance and gala dinner featuring Northern Ballet Theatre, Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre in a joint performance piece created specifically for the Leeds in Barcelona festival, which will be attended by a key audience including the British Ambassador for Spain.
Deborah Green of Marketing Leeds concludes, “It is our intention to establish Leeds as an international city for business excellence and to incentivise international collaboration to the benefit of Leeds economic future. The series of ‘Leeds in...’ events aims to achieve just that and we believe that our continued investment to provide a platform for our prominent sectors to present themselves will deliver great benefits in the longer term.”