Lender of the Year

Hayfin Capital Management

Since 2009, Hayfin has established itself as a market leader in European private debt, with one of the largest and most experienced investment teams in Europe. 

In the past year, Hayfin has consolidated its position as one of the UK’s most active providers of private debt financing, doubling its deployment in the last quarter YOY to mid-market and larger-cap businesses and sponsors. The UK is Hayfin’s largest market YTD for deployment (as of June 2022). 

Hayfin lends to PE-backed borrowers, accounting for the majority of its deal flow, primarily through its flagship Direct Lending and Special Opportunities strategies. Over the judging period, the manager has invested a total of €5bn across its core strategies. 

Hayfin has continued to strengthen its access to capital and its origination and underwriting capabilities in the past year, growing its team to over 85 investment professionals (of which 56 are in Private Credit) and its AUM to more than €25bn. In December 2021, Hayfin announced the final close of its Special Opportunities Fund III, raising over €2bn to deploy across industries, markets and sub-strategies where financing may be scarce. 

Since inception, Hayfin has extended c.€32.7bn in loans to over 440 predominantly European companies.

HSBC UK Bank plc

HSBC remained open for business during the height of the pandemic, and has experienced a significant rebound in the volume of completed transactions in the first full year post lockdown. HSBC completed 122 deals during the judging period (vs. 58 between Jul20-Jun21) and deployed c.£1.2bn of funds (vs. £0.6bn). HSBC’s highlights include: 

• Market leader by deal volume in PE backed transactions in the UK mid-market, occupying c.30% and c.21% market share between Q1 21 – Q4 21 according to Houlihan Lokey and DC Advisory trackers, respectively;
• Launch of the HSBC Asset Management Fund (“AMG”), with 23 deals completed to date alongside the mainstream HSBC leverage team. The fund allows us to increase our ticket size up to £70.0m, and provide a one-stop solution;
• Completed 122 transactions (LBOs, refinancings, recaps, P2Ps, bolt-ons), deploying £1.2bn capital in the UK;
• Sponsoring the October 2021 BVCA Annual Summit where we hosted a panel discussion on ‘Financing to Support Net Zero’ – a prime example of where we provided thought leadership on an important topic;
• 50% of new hires in the HSBC leverage finance team were from BAME and/or female backgrounds; 27% of workforce are female, and; 22% are from BAME backgrounds, increasing to 28% in London.

Permira Credit

During the 12 months to 30 June 2022, Permira Credit’s Direct Lending funds deployed a total of €2.5bn across 16 mandates (excluding add-ons). All transactions during the period backed top-tier private equity sponsors. 

Funds advised by Permira Credit acted as senior secured lender to a series of notable acquisitions, building on the firm’s strategy of focusing on resilient sectors, including technology, healthcare and business services. Example deals, among others, included:

• EQT’s acquisition of Parcel2Go
• Macquarie Capital’s acquisition of Aryza
• CVC’s acquisition of Rayner
• Castik Capital’s acquisition of TBAuctions
• Five Arrows Growth Capital’s acquisition of KidsKonnect
• FSN Capital’s investment in Gottfried Stiller GmbH | MEGABAD 

Other highlights from across the Permira Credit platform during the judging period included:

• Pricing of €406.6m CLO, Providus VI
• Pricing of €344.8m CLO, Providus VII
• Launch of a new investment strategy - Permira Strategic Opportunities - Permira Credit’s first strategy focusing on opportunistic and special situations investing 

Permira Credit is committed to responsible investment and is engaged in initiatives at both firm and portfolio level. The firm published its first ESG Report in 2021, which includes data from the 2020/2021 pilot process collecting ESG-related KPIs from the portfolio companies of one of the Direct Lending funds.

ThinCats

ThinCats is a leading alternative finance provider that is firmly established within the corporate finance advisory market as a go-to source of funding for mid-sized UK businesses. We specialise in providing debt finance for acquisitions, growth capital and refinancing. 

To serve the needs of the lower mid-market sector we have established a team of credit and origination specialists dedicated to private equity transactions. We recognise the need to move quickly when structuring a private equity transaction, something that helped us become a top 6 debt provider for M&A in the UK 2021. 

The breadth of our funding sources means we have the flexibility to deploy capital to mid-sized businesses across the full credit spectrum and we were able to deploy a record amount of capital to private equity backed businesses in the qualifying period.

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.