LDC appoints 3i's Hague as investment director

By Sebastian Salek

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group's mid-market private equity group LDC has appointed former 3i director Gordon Hague to lead its 300 million pound($458 million) investment in engineering and industrial firms.

LDC said earlier this month it would increase its fundingcommitment to specialist engineering and manufacturingbusinesses by 50 percent from the 200 million pounds it targetedfor the fund two years ago.

LDC has long been active in the sectors, having completedmore than 130 deals in them since it was formed in 1981. It hascompleted 11 investments in manufacturing and specialistengineering since October 2011, placing equity funding of morethan 190 million pounds.

Hague was responsible for the general and industrials marketat private equity group 3i, and worked on deals including a 60million pound investment in data centre business Telecity.