Private Equity News & Analysis

RJD refinances fund manager with £10m leverage

RJD received four ‘competing offers’ to refinance portfolio fund administrator IPES. It picked Lloyds TSB in what partner Duncan Johnson described as a ‘no brainer’. The firm purchased the company in September for £25m.

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RJD has refinanced its portfolio company IPES, a provider of fund administration services, securing senior debt facilities of £10 million from Lloyds TSB.

In September 2008 RJD led a £25 million management buyout of IPES.

The bid to refinance IPES had a total of four financing offers, from three unnamed UK clearing banks and Lloyds TSB.

RJD accepted Lloyds’ offer because “it was the best offer” and a “no brainer” due to its “good historic relationship” with the bank, Duncan Johnson an RJD partner, told PEO.

Johnson also stressed the importance of personal relationships in securing leverage. He said that Lloyds has had a consistent leverage team over the last seven years, where other banks have seen a high turnover of staff.

When questioned about current lending conditions, Johnson said he wouldn’t describe the ban

Banks are cherry picking the good deals.

Duncan Johnson

ks as “closed
for offers of leverage”, but said that they are “cherry picking the good deals”.

IPES is an attractive offer, he said, because it comes with a live client deposit base and annuity cash flow of 10 to 12 years. It operates 300 funds globally for 65 separate client groups, from its offices in Guernsey, Jersey and London.

RJD Partners, a spin out from life and pensions group Royal London, is currently investing its second fund which closed on £180 million in July 2007. It is targeting UK companies in the leisure sectors with enterprise values of up to £75 million.