‘Everything in the UK is on sale,’ says US private equity executive

The plummeting value of sterling means that “everything in the UK is on sale”, according to a top executive at US private markets giant Ares Management.

Blair Jacobson, co-head of European credit at Ares, said he “absolutely” expected to see US investors doing more deals in the UK to take advantage of the weak currency.

“It’s a pretty big difference if you have US dollar-denominated funds,” he told the FT’s Due Diligence Live event in London on Wednesday.

A pioneer in private lending, Ares has financed a number of buyouts of listed companies after banks stepped back from the market. Traditional lenders retreated after struggling to sell on debt for deals that they committed to finance early this year.