Dunedin's FRA secures £100m refinancing

The new senior debt facilities from Barings is intended to allow FRA to expand into new markets, mainly through new office openings and recruitment. Dunedin partner Mark Ligertwood said: "We're growing our Paris and Scandinavia offices quickly, but we haven't yet identified our next location. We tend to follow client projects in addition to opening offices where we can recruit the best talent and build our presence around those teams."

The company recently opened offices in the Nordic region, as well as in New York, Dallas and Philadelphia, and expanded its headcount by 79 staff in 2019.

The package will be used to pay shareholder loans, and preference and ordinary share dividends, as well as widen the equity pool available to allow for recruitment for new positions in management.

With an EBITDA of around £34m, the package implies leverage of just under 3x for the company, said Ligertwood. Existing lenders HSBC and Santander will continue to provide a modest amount of financing, with Barings provide the company's debt funding.

"We think lenders like FRA, because generally client engagements will run for many years and, in addition, we've had very quick growth," said Ligertwood.

Previous funding
Dunedin invested in FRA in March 2017. HSBC and Santander provided debt financing to support the transaction. The firm was investing from Dunedin Buyout Fund III at the time, which closed on £300m in June 2013.

The company secured a refinancing in January 2019 of £50m from its existing lenders.

Company
FRA is a forensic accounting and data governance consultancy that advises on corruption and fraud matters, financial crime, complex cross-border disputes, audit defence, environmental regulation, compliance and investigations. Founded in 1999, the company reported revenues of £88m in 2019 and employs 283 people. Its EBITDA has grown from £14.3m in 2018 to around £34m in 2019.

People
Dunedin – Mark Ligertwood (partner).
Barings Global Private Finance– Matt Carty (director).
Forensic Risk Alliance – Toby Duthie (co-founder).

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