Global private equity firm Advent International has agreed with Lloyds TSB to acquire its subsidiary Lloyds TSB Registrars for a total of GBP550m, subject to completion and other adjustmen
Global private equity firm Advent International has agreed with Lloyds TSB to acquire its subsidiary Lloyds TSB Registrars for a total of GBP550m, subject to completion and other adjustments. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the second half of this year.
Based in Worthing in southern England, the business employs around 1,700 staff. Its contribution to Lloyds TSB’s profit after tax in 2006 was GBP32m and it had gross assets of some GBP85m at the end of last year. Advent is backing the existing management team under the leadership of managing director David Winton.
With more than 700 corporate clients, including 55 per cent of the FTSE 100 and 41 per cent of the FTSE 250 companies and some 24m million investor and shareholder accounts, Lloyds TSB Registrars is the pre-eminent share registration business in the UK and one of the country’s leading players in financial services business process outsourcing.
Lloyds TSB Registrars’ activities include registration services, retail investor services and employee share plans, flexible benefits and pensions administration.
Established in 1956, Lloyds TSB Registrars manages and maintains shareholder registers on behalf of its corporate clients. It also has a substantial employee share plan division, which administers corporate-sponsored employee share plans. As a provider of retail investor services, it offers retail share dealing and administration services as well as dividend reinvestment plans and investment trust savings schemes.
Employee benefits is the most recent service line, launched in 2004 to offer such services as pension scheme administration, total reward statements and flexible benefits administration.
Advent’s acquisition of Lloyds TSB Registrars reflects one of its key buyout strategies of targeting businesses with strong growth potential and leading management teams within its core sectors.
Advent has a strong track record in the financial services sector and has backed more than 25 financial services companies worldwide with operations in the US, central and eastern Europe and the UK, including five over the last two years.
Says Winton: ‘Advent’s backing represents a significant next step in the development of our business. We’ve been evaluating a number of opportunities for the business for some time, both in terms of new service offerings and international growth.
‘The flexibility and backing we will have as an independent company will allow us to increase the range of high-quality services we offer our customers. Advent’s experience of working with growing services companies, and international financial services businesses in particular was instrumental in our decision to partner with them.
‘It’s central to our continued success that we work with backers who share our vision for the business and are as concerned about maintaining our existing standards of customer service. Both Advent and Lloyds TSB’s management team are equally committed to this and to ensuring we keep both customers and employees appropriately informed throughout the buyout process.’
Says Advent director James Brocklebank: ‘We recognised from the start the quality of the business, its staff and its management team. Lloyds TSB Registrars is a unique asset, whose outstanding customer relationships, established market leadership positions, broad product offering and advanced technology provide an impressive platform for growth within financial services business process outsourcing.’
Advent was advised by Credit Suisse (exclusive financial advisory), PricewaterhouseCoopers (financial due diligence), Mercer Oliver Wyman (market and commercial due diligence), Weil, Gotshal & Manges (legal advisory), Blenheim Advisors (debt advisory), Lloyds TSB and Lehman Brothers (debt underwriters), Ernst & Young (tax advisory) and Clifford Chance (regulatory advisory).
Advent’s investments in the financial services sector have included include BondDesk, the leading US alternative trading system for the retail fixed-income market; CCS, the Czech Republic’s leading fuel charge card issuer and processor, merged with FleetCor; Ultimo, Poland’s leading debt purchase and debt collection business; GFI Group, a leading inter-dealer broker of OTC derivative products; and Datek Online, an online broker, merged with Ameritrade.
Advent also has experience as an investor in HR and shareholder services including Alexander Mann Group (UK recruitment process outsourcing), Financial Dynamics (financial PR) and WageWorks (US flexible benefits), and in complex business process outsourcing businesses such as MACH (international mobile roaming clearing and settlement) and Long Term Care Group (administration of long-term healthcare plans).
Founded in 1984, Advent has offices in 14 countries and 100 investment professionals in western and central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on cross-border, strategic restructuring and growth opportunities, employing a focused ownership approach to drive earnings improvements in portfolio companies. Since its establishment, Advent has raised GBP5bn in private equity capital and completed more than 200 buyout and private equity transactions valued at more than GBP13bn in 35 countries.
