Bayside Credit Partners, the direct-lending arm of Bayside Capital, has provided mezzanine financing to support the acquisition of Ideal Shopping Direct (Ideal Shopping), a leading home shopping retailer in the UK, by Inflexion Private Equity (Inflexion). The acquisition de-lists Ideal Shopping from the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, where its shares had been traded since 2000.
Ideal Shopping sells a broad range of general consumer products (craft, home and leisure, personal care) through four TV shopping channels, the internet and mail-order catalogues. The TV channels broadcast to over 23 million households in the UK, where they operate on all available digital TV platforms (Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat). Four specialist e-commerce websites support the TV channels, and are increasingly used as a channel for booking orders and acquiring new customers.
The acquisition was funded by a combination of senior and mezzanine debt. Bayside Credit Partners, provided mezzanine financing, alongside Beechbrook Capital. The new GBP10m mezzanine facility, which carries a seven-year tenor, provides Ideal Shopping with a flexible funding structure, capable of supporting the company’s rapid growth over the next few years. Ideal Shopping’s revenues grew by 13.5% to GBP117 million in 2010, and over the next few years are set to benefit from growing digital TV penetration, expanded broadcasting contracts and the introduction of new product categories.
Ideal Shopping Direct is Bayside Credit Partners’ seventh primary market debt financing transaction over the past 12 months. Earlier this year, Bayside Credit Partners had provided mezzanine and PIK funding in support of the refinancing of Caffè Nero, a leading coffee chain in the United Kingdom.
Lionel Laurant, Principal at Bayside Credit Partners, says: “We are very excited to back Inflexion’s acquisition of Ideal Shopping Direct. Ideal Shopping has established itself as one of the UK’s leading players in the rapidly-evolving multi-channel retail market. We expect the company to continue to deliver superior growth, and look forward to a successful partnership with Inflexion and the management team”.
