The West Midlands buy-out market has outperformed the UK as a whole, increasing fivefold over last year’s figures.

The region saw seven deals completed in the first nine months of 2010 with a total value of more than £417 million. By comparison, the whole of 2009 saw ten deals completed with a combined value of just £82 million in the region.

According to research by the Centre for Management Buyout Research the overall value of all UK buyouts in the first nine months of 2010 has also seen an increase over 2009 – £5.6 billion in 2009 compared to £13 billion in 2010.

Phil Griesbach, director at Barclays Private Equity in Birmingham, said: “The private equity buyout market is growing in confidence and strength, with private equity deal flow dominating the mergers and acquisitions market in the UK and the West Midlands.”

The research comes as the Birmingham office of Catapult Venture Managers, together with The Co-operative Bank, have funded a management buy-out of specialist scientific instrument firm Oxford Cryosystems for an undisclosed sum.

Meanwhile, venture capital company Midven has said that it was business at usual at the £18.4 million Exceed fund despite a reduction of £1.15 million in Advantage West Midlands’ investment.

Midven said securing LDC as an investor had attracted support from the European Regional Development Fund meaning the fund has been unaffected by the reduction in AWM’s contribution.