Voting Closed
To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London
BDO Debt Advisory
The UK lower mid-market continues to be a vibrant and active area for funds to invest, and BDO Debt Advisory were proud to support an increasing number of transactions over the 2024/25 period, growing our business for the third year in a row, with 11% YOY growth, supported by strong appetite from lenders.
BDO Debt Advisory invests more intellectual horsepower in preparing credits for market and ensuring the data sells the credit story, which maximises traction with lenders and empowers them to put their best foot forward. We leverage this competitive tension and apply our problem-solving approach to drive innovation on every deal, optimising structure and terms to best align with our clients’ funding objectives.
A third of our deals in the period were with new private equity relationships. The rest were via repeat sponsor relationships who value our data-led, hands-on approach, our ability to source debt packages which offer the best flexibility, and our follow-on service to help CFOs navigate and maximise the benefits available from complex loan documentation.
We supported deals valued at over £650m, a material (c.40% YOY) increase. In addition to our numerous refinances and LBOs we also supported sell-side processes alongside M&A colleagues, underpinning value for our sponsors.
The lower mid-market remains a rich hunting ground for private equity, and BDO Debt Advisory’s focus and specialism puts us in a great position to support those who recognise its enormous potential.
Clearwater
Over the qualifying period, our UK Debt Advisory team successfully completed 35 transactions, with 33 involving PE. We remain sector and product agnostic, providing independent advice across a broad spectrum of debt products. These facilities have supported a variety of objectives, from acquisition financing and refinancings to covenant resets and amendments.
We were proud to be named Debt Advisor of the Year at the Mergermarket British PE Awards 2024, a testament to the strength of our platform and the trust placed in us by clients and sponsors.
This year, we further enhanced our market insight by publishing our annual Debt Advisory Lender Survey for the second consecutive year. Built entirely on proprietary data, the survey is used across external marketing materials, as well as providing valuable insights towards pitch documents.
Our deep, trusted lender relationships remain a cornerstone of our advisory service. Over the period, we approached c.90 lenders, spanning banks and credit funds, and we are actively discussing c.40 mandates, equipping us with real-time insight into the rapidly evolving European debt landscape.
Following a period of significant growth, we are now proud to be one of Europe’s largest and most active independent debt advisory teams, with 42+ dedicated professionals to this service line and a local presence across key European markets, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Finland.
Deloitte
Get it while it’s hot! Very much the theme of the last twelve months… those financing packages put in place in 2022-2023 now look rather costly compared to terms currently available to borrowers. With a low frictional cost and short payback period, the Deloitte UK team has supported 60 borrowers during the judging period on both refinancings and acquisition finance, raising over £3.7bn of committed financing, ranging from financing packages of sub £20 million up to £800 million.
Key sectors the team has been most active in include the roll up of professional / accountancy services which has now extended into legal services, fire safety and TIC businesses, wealth platforms and specialist pharma services.
We are proud to align with Deloitte’s commitment to make an impact that matters – the financing packages we have helped secure for our clients have enabled borrowers to turbo charge their growth ambitions, from rare disease drug development, to navigating periods of regulatory change, facilitating succession and extending cash runway for high growth technology businesses.
As one of the most active debt advisers in the market, our clients benefit from our data-driven approach (with 84 funds now contributing to our Private Credit deal tracker) combined with our deep industry knowledge & long standing respected relationships with the providers of capital. Thank you!
FRP Corporate Finance
Within the judging period, the FRP debt advisory team completed 28 transactions, across a wide range of sectors. Working closely with PE investors at portfolio level, the team have raised over £572m in credit facilities across a range of financing structures, predominantly focused on leveraged buyouts, M&A driven refinancings, recapitalisations and growth capital raises. A number of these deals also have sizeable Committed Acquisition and Incremental facilities in place to facilitate growth via acquisition over the next three years. 82% of the transactions (23 deals) involved raising capital to finance Private Equity transactions with a total debt value of over £537m, and an average deal value of £23m. This represents a 16% increase on the previous year.
The team have made many notable Private Equity deals possible, by guiding clients through the end-to-end fund-raising process, including educating lenders, deal structuring, securing credit approvals, negotiation of terms and handling the intricacies of banking legal documentation.
The team have built an extensive network of funders and a detailed knowledge of their investment preferences. This enables clients seeking finance to connect with the most suitable funding partners, resulting in smooth transaction process, successful completions, and trusted, ongoing relationships.
In the past year the team have invested in recruitment - adding additional expertise and taking the headcount to 10 experienced debt advisers.
Voting Closed
To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London