Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance has provided a financing facility to support the management buyout of City & County Healthcare Group (C&C), the UK’s fourth largest home care provider.
The facility has been provided to Graphite Capital, a UK mid-market private equity specialist, to underwrite its backing of the MBO from Sovereign Capital Partners.
Investec fully underwrote the finance package pre deal, providing security of funding for Graphite. The Investec team then successfully syndicated two thirds of the financing to HSBC and Lloyds (a third each) highlighting the strength of the credit.
The facility is made up of a combination of senior secured term loans, a senior secured revolving credit facility and a senior secured acquisition facility.
Operating across 64 branches, C&C is one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing national providers of personal support services, supplying staff who give assistance to the elderly with daily living tasks. It also serves clients with long-term conditions including learning disabilities, mental health needs and acquired brain injury. The company employs around 6,100 carers providing care to approximately 15,200 service users per annum. Its customer base includes local authorities, the NHS and private clients.
This is the latest deal in which Investec has partnered with Graphite Capital, having earlier this year provided finance to support Explore Learning’s expansion plans.
Grant Davidson of Investec says: “Our commitment to Graphite in the form of our underwrite shows we are continually willing to support our key clients in securing ownership of great businesses. A successful syndication shows the strength of the credit and will give the business the financial flexibility to support its buy and build strategy over the coming years. We have worked with Graphite Capital on successful deals in the past and look forward to supporting further deals in the future.”
Mark Hall of Graphite says “The underwritten financing package was a very strong statement of support of the business and invaluable in assisting Graphite. With the support of Graphite and its financing partners, C&C is ideally positioned to capitalise on its excellent potential growth, both organically and via strategic acquisitions.”
