Background:

FRP Corporate Finance started to work with babble in 2019 and since then, we’ve supported the team through multiple acquisitions and also the sale of the business from LDC to Graphite in 2020.

Headquartered in London, babble provides unified technology solutions for more than 2,000 small and mid-sized businesses. The company’s services include cloud collaboration and communications, cloud contact centres, cyber security, mobile and enterprise connectivity. Babble’s client portfolio includes EDF energy, Hello Fresh, Discovery Channel, National Geographic and more. babble is a fast growing business; it has a large and well developed M&A pipeline and a track record of successfully completing acquisitions.

Action:

In 2022, FRP Corporate Finance’s Debt Advisory team were mandated by management and Graphite to raise debt for a refinance of babble and to also secure sizeable funding facilities for the next stage of growth.

The Debt Advisory team prepared a detailed briefing memo to generate credit-backed terms from lenders pre-qualified to ensure that they would have the highest appetite to support babble, a truly leading business in its sector. It was critical that these lenders fully embraced the continuing buy and build plans of the business and the associated financing requirements.

FRP Corporate Finance presented the best of the shortlisted lenders to babble’s executive leadership and following a tightly managed due diligence process, selected a lending partner that was most aligned with management, their strategic plan and the likely requirement for a relatively rapid deployment of funds for M&A, whilst also being flexible to support the organic growth of the business and associated investment.

Outcome:

The Debt Advisory team were able to secure terms with a lender that permitted access to more than £200 million of debt financing for the business, growing further over time, providing a lengthy runway to support the buy and build plans under Graphite ownership. In the space of 6 months, since refinancing, the business had grown by more than 75% and it could potentially double in the next 12-18 months.