Corebridge's CEO, Francis Zadan is interviewed by the Financial Times

18 April 2008

Public-sector pitch levelled
By Hugo Greenhalgh
Published: April 18 2008 18:28

Small businesses pitching for public-sector contracts are now able to outsource elements to third parties under new initiatives introduced this month.

Before April, any firm tendering for business faced a ban on the assignment of debt, preventing them from being able to subcontract portions of the deal to other companies.

However, others were more cautious, citing the problems faced by SMEs when tendering for public sector contracts.

Francis Zadan, chief executive of Corebridge, a London-based telecoms software business, compared UK with US policy, which already ringfences 25 per cent of all contracts to SMEs. “In the UK, the system works against the SMEs and favours dealing with large enterprises,” he said.

Hugo Greenhalgh is editor of Investment Adviser.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008