The deal

Our Corporate Finance team has successfully advised mid-market private equity firm Primary Capital on a debt raise to part-fund the acquisition of ICS Learn in conjunction with Santander and management.

ICS Learn is a leading online professional education platform, operating in the human resources, accountancy and health and wellness markets. The ICS Learn brand is long-established and the business currently educates over 15,000 active students. The buyout was led by Colin Kennedy, who will remain as Chief Executive Officer.

The Debt Advisory team, of Ian Milne and Simon Sherliker, were engaged by Primary Capital to take them through the process of raising funds to support their investment into ICS Learn and provide working capital facilities. This involved presenting to potential lenders, deal structuring, securing credit approvals, re-banking, negotiation of terms and handling all the banking legal documentation.

“ICS Learn provides high quality online delivery of market-leading professional qualifications, such as the CIPD for HR professionals. Customer demand continues to grow, the business’s student-focused delivery model has helped forge its leading reputation and the online platform offers a scalable business model. We look forward to working with Colin and the rest of the management team to support further growth of ICS Learn over the coming years. Our experience of working with The team debt advisory team was positive throughout. Ian and Simon were very hands-on in their support of ourselves and management which, allied to their detailed knowledge of debt markets and processes, proved to be a genuinely value-added experience for all of us.” Oliver Melliss, Partner at Primary Capital.