Debt Advisor of the Year

Clearwater International

During the qualifying period the European Debt Advisory (DA) team completed a total of 60 transactions raising over €2bn of financing for all client types. Over half these deals involved UK PE across a range of sectors, transaction size and funders.

From the onset of the pandemic Clearwater was focussed on ensuring clients were aware of current trends and liquidity levels in the market. H2 2021 saw an extremely competitive debt market, in which the team delivered tailored processes and excellent client outcomes.
Additionally, Tom Barnwell joined the partnership having been with the firm for eight years, demonstrating Clearwater’s confidence in its position and market outlook. 

The team have been involved in multiple sell-side transactions during the timeframe, including BCN, Verdant Leisure, Goals and Meet Recruitment, assisting the M&A team in running a smooth and competitive process.

Some DA advised deals:

• Vitruvian Partners backed Sykes on its acquisition of Forest Holidays
• Livingbridge on its investment in Imagesound
• Livingbridge on raising debt facilities to support the investment in North SP Group
• Palatine and CTS on refinancing to support growth
• Ascent on its refinancing to support its acquisitive growth strategy
• Incremental Group on raising debt facilities to support the acquisition of Adatis

Deloitte

Since Covid we have completely reimagined our business, transforming at every level to deliver for PE across the globe. Our UK Debt & Capital Advisory team reached 126 people, supported by over 250 debt professionals globally, offering financial sponsors a fully integrated global service from fund finance through to FX and Interest Rate hedging execution, demonstrated by 24% year on year UK growth, completing over 50 UK transactions for financial sponsors, raising committed financing of £9bn across a combined enterprise value of more than £20bn.

In June 2022 we closed the largest private debt transaction ever undertaken in Europe, including committed acquisition facilities in excess of £1bn. A few weeks prior to this we advised a UK SaaS provider of data management and protection solutions for SMEs on a £13m ARR based loan. Both situations were great outcomes for our clients and shows that there’s nothing too big or too small for our team! 

Against a backdrop of high inflation, increasing rates and macro-economic uncertainty, lenders have been increasingly selective on which assets to spend their time. We’ve helped borrowers navigate, prepare for and identify the most relevant sources of capital to deliver bespoke financing packages to support growth ambitions.

Lincoln International

Lincoln International is a global mid-market investment bank with 800 professionals across 20+ offices advising across M&A, Capital Advisory, Valuations and Private Funds Advisory. Recently celebrating our 25th anniversary, in 2021 Lincoln completed 400+ transactions. Specific to debt advisory, Lincoln completed 47 European financing transactions in 2021 with a 47% increase in capital raise transactions by volume, arranging $3.5n in facilities. To support this growth and future ambitions, Lincoln continues to invest in its people and in recent months have recruited an MD in Amsterdam and a VP in London to the capital advisory team, with 20+ professionals total across Europe. In the UK specifically, recently we have advised Westbridge on their acquisitions of Techex and Eque2 (acquisition financings, technology), DigitalBridge on their recapitalisation of Digita Oy (recapitalisation, infrastructure), SFW on their acquisition of London based Captify (acquisition financing, technology), LDC on their investment into Kerv (growth financing, technology) Bluewater on their refinancing of 3t Energy Group (refinancing, Services), THI on the refinancing of their equity bridge for Corndel (refinancing, business services), KIMS Hospital on their facilities extension (amendment, healthcare), Inflexion on the financing of their acquisition of Detectortester (acquisition financing, industrials).

Voting is now closed

 To find out who won book a table at the British Private Equity Awards on 04 October 2022 by contacting Chris Coe.