The deal

Our Corporate Finance team has successfully advised Graphite Capital on a debt raise through Shawbrook Bank to back the management buy-out of Ten10, a leading UK quality engineering and software testing services provider.

With offices in London, Leeds and Raleigh North Carolina, Ten10’s services help customers manage the commercial and financial risks involved in developing, implementing, upgrading and integrating software to enable them to comply with regulatory change, support business growth, increase customer satisfaction or reduce costs. The company has more than 250 staff supporting a large and diversified customer base of approximately 100 blue-chip organisations across the financial services, retail, legal and public sectors.

The management buy-out was led by Chris Shaw who has repositioned the business and overseen a period of strong growth since his arrival as chief executive in September 2017. In the two years to April 2020, revenues increased by 28 per cent to more than £26 million. The management team reinvested a substantial percentage of its proceeds as part of the deal.

The debt advisory team were engaged by Graphite Capital to take them through the process of raising funds to support the investment into Ten10 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, all within a four-week timeframe.

“We have known Graphite for a long time and believe they will be great partners for Ten10. Graphite has a strong track record of supporting technology-enabled businesses to become leaders in their sector. Their expertise will be invaluable as we continue the development of our software testing, DevOps and RPA services and accelerate our international expansion.” Chris Shaw, CEO, Ten10.

“We are looking forward to supporting Chris and his team in the next chapter of Ten10’s development. The company has a strong position in its market, with exciting organic growth prospects driven by an increasing demand for automation skills and the continuing growth of software development as companies seek to become more technology enabled. The debt facilities we have raised through Shawbrook provide a flexible and high quality financing package for the business and we are extremely grateful to Ian Milne, Simon Sherliker and the debt advisory team for all their hard work and insightful advice in helping us secure such an attractive debt package in what was a very demanding timeline.” Humphrey Baker, Partner, Graphite Capital.