Background

Anglian Home Improvements, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of windows and doors, was seeking to refinance away from a traditional clearing bank and generate additional liquidity from its asset base.

FRP was engaged by Alchemy Special Opportunities, Anglian’s private equity owner, to manage a competitive asset-based lender (ABL) debt raising process which would maximise the available funding. However, the deal was made more challenging because of a complicated company structure which involved a large retail operation coupled with advances against commercial and wholesale orders to support the wider group’s operation.

There was also a need to maintain large ancillary facilities with the existing clearing bank to support the group with day-to-day operations. And the whole process took place against a backdrop of a tough UK financing environment, given low consumer confidence and the implications of Brexit impacting lenders’ appetite for credit.

Action

Our Debt Advisory team led by Tom Cox was engaged to run a competitive ABL debt raising process, which included developing transaction marketing materials, creating an availability model, managing asset valuations, and negotiating the terms of the deal and all ABL facility documents on behalf of the sponsor and company.

Outcome

We were able to deliver the necessary refinancing in a tight timeframe before existing facilities matured. With two strong competing lenders providing two fully credit-approved offers, we secured a facility from the leading lender, which delivered 20% more availability than its competitor.