riddler2 Mar 2010 19:53
fordian - well done for finding this:-
06:22 News snippet Fordian 1
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12:00 am, February 22, 2010
Debt group boss seeks investors
By Michael Fahy
Cleardebt Plc chief executive David Mond is looking to attract external investors to reduce the Timperley-based debt management group's reliance on his personal funding.
Mond financed the purchase of Relax Group's assets last November — administration documents show that he paid £4.4m to acquire its debt.
Cleardebt then concluded a deal to pay £2.7m for the Chesterfield-based company's business and assets, which had a book value of £6.25m. The payment will go to Mond as Relax's secured creditor.
Last week Cleardebt secured a bridging loan of £500,000 firm Synergy Capital Ltd — a Guernsey-based fund which invests in businesses caught by banking and equity shortfalls. It is run by Andrew Fearon and Matthew Hulme and has made investments in firms such as BGlobal, Cantono, Cashbox and Spiritel.
The money is being used to meet a stage payment and Cleardebt said it intended to issue consolidated loan notes or conduct a share placing to raise £3m to help pay for the remainder, which is due on March 2.
“The only other way of doing it is if I lend the money to the business,” Mond told Crain's. “But it's a public company and although I own 60 per cent, I don't own all of it. So we're looking at different ways of getting more institutions involved, including taking on bank finance.”
Mond said that he could not go into further details about fundraising efforts, as the company is due to announce its interim results next month.
However, he added that Cleardebt was “very happy” with the acquisition, stating that the deal to acquire more than 2,400, individual voluntary arrangements, 1,300 protected trust deeds (the Scottish equivalent of IVAs) and 2,800 debt management plans had been cash-positive. It had also brought a useful network of introducers to the business.
Cash injection
Matthew Cheetham, chief executive of Sale-based competitor Harrington Brooks, said that there were investment opportunities in the consolidating debt management sector. His firm received an additional cash injection from its private equity owners Inflexion last week, enabling it to buy back books from a Cornwall-based debt management firm.
He said the deal made Harrington Brooks the third-biggest independent in the sector, even though it only controlled around 20,000 of the estimated 600,000-700,000 debt management plans currently operating. Half of these are plans drawn up by voluntary organisations for indebted customers and the other half are run by commercial firms.
“I see consolidation in the sector as being inevitable,” said Cheetham. “Those firms that do well will be those who can build scale, have good systems