Arden Group

Adviser to to babble cloud and LDC on the acquisition of Arden Group, an IT services company.

The deal

Our Corporate Finance team has successfully advised babble cloud and LDC on a debt raise through Allied Irish Bank to part-fund the acquisition of IT and Telecommunications provider Arden Group.

London-based babble cloud holdings limited has been backed by leading mid-market private equity firm LDC since October 2017 and is one of the UK’s leading providers of cloud-based communications technology.

Following the investment by LDC in 2017 the team were actively seeking acquisitions which would drive scale as part of a wider ongoing growth strategy to build a business with longstanding value.

The acquisition of Arden Group will add strength in mobile and IT managed services to babble’s existing market-leadership in Unified Communication (UCaaS) and cloud-based Contact Centre solutions (CCaaS). It will also double babble’s revenue to nearly £20 million and create a combined customer base of more than 1,200 customers.

The Debt Advisory team were engaged by babble cloud and LDC to take them through the process of raising funds to support the acquisition of Arden Group and provide working capital facilities. This involved presenting to potential lenders, deal structuring, securing credit approvals, negotiation of terms and handling all the banking legal documentation.

“The acquisition of Arden Group will continue to strengthen babble’s core proposition, as well as extend the business’ span across the UK.” Alex Clark, Investment Director at LDC, and member of the babble cloud board.

“Concluding multiple inter dependent workstreams to complete a deal is always a challenge. Working with Ian and his team on debt advisory made this task significantly easier. The experience and knowledge that they brought to bear was invaluable.” Laird Cawood, Chief Financial Officer of babble.

Deal summary

Date:

October 2018

Sector:

Technology

Deal type:

Acquisition finance and growth capital raising

Deal size:

Undisclosed

The acquisition of Arden Group will continue to strengthen babble’s core proposition, as well as extend the business’ span across the UK. Alex Clark Investment Director at LDC

Related team

Simon Sherliker

Simon Sherliker

  • Partner
  • Debt Advisory
  • London West End, Reading