Ares Management and GE Capital’s European Senior Secured Loan Programme (ESSLP) has provided a GBP75m financing package for CVC Growth Partners’ acquisition of Wireless Logic.
The acquisition was funded by a GBP65m ESSLP Unitranche facility, which provides flexible and deliverable financing solutions of scale. In addition, a GBP10M working capital and acquisition facility was provided by GE Capital.
This deal marks the 12th transaction for the ESSLP since its inception in 2012 and brings total commitments funded to EUR1.3 billion. The EUR1.75 billion programme, the first of its kind in the European debt market, is structured to provide flexible unitranche financing solutions to European mid-market borrowers.
Michael Dennis, Partner in the Direct Lending Group at Ares Management, says: “We felt that unitranche was the most appropriate financing structure given the quality of Wireless Logic’s business and its requirement for a flexible and scalable debt structure. We are delighted to have been selected by CVC as its financing partner for their first transaction utilising the unitranche product.”
Chris Fowler, Executive Director at GE Capital, says: “We are delighted to support CVC Growth Partners’ first investment of the new fund. As a market leader in Europe, Wireless Logic is extremely well positioned to capitalise on the explosive growth in the M2M/IoT space. The ESSLP is well suited to an investment of this nature as it combines a day-one flexible financing solution with significant dry powder to support the continued expansion of the business.”
The ESSLP has provided debt financing to support private equity-backed businesses across Europe that span an ever-growing range of sectors. Previous financings include Montagu’s acquisition of Open GI, the recent upsized debt package for Notemachine owned by Corsair Capital, as well as financings for Hillarys owned by European Capital, Infovista owned by Thoma Bravo, Parkdean owned by Alchemy and Montagu’s acquisition of DORC.
