BELFAST BRIEFING: IT IS not often you find a mergers and acquisitions lawyer keen to talk himself out of a job – particularly one referred to in certain circles in Belfast as the "dealmaker".

But Ian Coulter, who has been involved in some of the biggest MA deals in the North in the last decade, harbours an ambition that could effectively remove him from the equation.

Coulter is the managing partner of Tughans, the Belfast law firm which is rarely out of the picture when it comes to multimillion-pound deals involving local businesses and their multinational suitors.

The firm played a lead role in one of the largest corporate transactions in Ireland in recent years – advising ESB on certain aspects of its £1 billion (€1.2 billion) acquisition of Northern Ireland Electricity.

Coulter and his firm have also been involved in other high-profile deals that have seen some of the North’s most exciting local start-ups sold to international investors. These include the sale of Lisburn based hi-tech diagnostics firm Kelman to General Electric, and of west Belfast’s hi-tech pioneer APT Licensing to French broadcasting group Audemat.

Coulter is no stranger to bringing interested parties to the table and is something of a veteran of management buy-outs and buy-ins – not to mention the rather delicate issue of financing and capital venture funding in Northern Ireland.

There is no shortage of local businesses, he says, that would prove more than attractive to acquisition hunters at this time.

He always has an “eye on an opportunity” and an ear out in the local market. “It is my role to act as conduit – to make the introductions, solve the problems – get people talking. I work with everyone from small companies to multinationals, and I am always interested in the dynamics. Sometimes you can tell just as soon as they walk in through the door whether a deal will be done or not.”

Coulter is, by profession, fastidious when it comes to detail, and there are few firms that have escaped his notice over the last 10 years. But lately Coulter has noticed just how few businesses are taking the next step to grow beyond their potential.

“I may be in danger talking myself out of a job here, but there are fantastic companies which need to be encouraged to go on – not to sit at a certain level, but to grow bigger.

“What Northern Ireland needs is a mix of good foreign direct investors, international investors and good local start-ups who can grow to the next level. We need to encourage all of this if we are to overcome the challenges facing the economy,” he adds.

This view reveals that Coulter is more than just your average corporate finance lawyer.

He has also just taken up the role of chairman at * CBI Northern Ireland– one of the youngest people to hold the post – and is determined not to waste a minute in the job. He wants to make sure that not only do local politicians know what is happening in the economy – he wants Downing Street to be keenly aware of the challenges the North is facing.

He is one of the many local voices campaigning for Northern Ireland to win the right to set its own level of corporation tax from the UK government. Coulter says the corporation tax debate is not about “getting a handout”, but readdressing “legacy issues”.

“Everyone talks about rebalancing the economy – and obviously we need to do that – but we have to look at where we have been. We have a mature public sector, we do need to get more people working in the private sector, so we need to find a way to change that – and fast. What we need is something that will create a positive effect, and corporation tax is one way to do that. This is not just about helping big companies – of course we want to get more foreign direct investment – but a lower rate of corporation tax would also help small to medium sized companies.

“How? Because they could release more working capital into their business – using it to expand, create jobs. That helps everyone from the man on the street to the 16-year-old who thinks he may have to head to Australia in a few year’s time to find a job,” he adds.

While the UK government takes its time to make a decision on the tax rate, there are other issues Coulter and his colleagues at the institute are working on. One of the most pressing involves Irish banks and how to help Northern Ireland businesses access a liquidity lifejacket.

He acknowledges the North’s traditional over-reliance on banks to fund local businesses has seen it hit harder than other parts of Britain and Ireland.

“We are a small regional economy – all our banks are controlled from elsewhere, primarily Britain, Denmark or the Republic, so we need to find a way to address the liquidity problems. We need to find a way to soften the blow,” he says.

One thing we do know is that he is unlikely to find it on the golf course, for the institute’s new chairman is not a golfer.

* This article was amended on February 7th, 2012 to correct a factual error