Silverfleet buys Ipes from RJD for £50m

Greg Gille
08 April 2013

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Silverfleet has acquired fund administration business Ipes from RJD Partners for ТЃ50m.

Lloyds Bank and HSBC provided a debt package to support the transaction. RJD, which acquired Ipes from its founder for £25m in 2008, reaped a 3x return on its investment. It is the fourth exit for RJD's second fund, RJD Private Equity Fund Il, which closed on £180m in July 2007.

Silverfleet had been a client of Ipes for 10 years and therefore knew Ipes "well", with the GP claiming to have been the management's first choice.

Silverfleet and Ipes' management plan on developing the business both organically and through acquisition with an emphasis on international expansion.

The GP says it was attracted by the outlook for outsourcing of private equity administration, a trend partially driven by increased regulation. Legislation such as the alternative investment fund managers directive as well as more complex investor demands will generate new reporting requirements, which are costly to provide in-house.

Previous funding
RJD acquired Ipes in 2008, investing via the RJD Partners II fund and fully underwriting the deal at the time. It approached the company early that year and subsequently acquired it in an off-market transaction.

Back then, the business administered more than 300 funds for 56 separate client groups, and had in excess of $36bn of assets under management. Ipes today administers 230 funds for more than 90 clients and has $50bn of assets under management.

RJD refinanced Ipes just a few weeks post-deal in 2008. The new £10m senior debt facility was provided by Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.

Company
Founded in Guernsey in 1998, Ipes is a provider of fund administration and outsourcing services mainly catering to the private equity industry. The business employs 130 staff across four European offices in Guernsey, Jersey, London and Luxembourg.

People
Geraldine Kennell, Mark Piasecki, Ian Oxley and Robert Knight worked on the deal for Silverfleet. Kennell will join Ipes' board. Richard Caston and Jill Williams represented RJD. Kevin Brennan is CEO of Ipes.

Advisers
Equity - DC Advisory, John Paul McGrath (Corporate finance); Travers Smith, Phil Sanderson, Edmund Reed (Legal); Carey Olsen (Legal); PwC (Financial due diligence, tax); LEK (Commercial due diligence); Kinetic (Regulatory due diligence).
Vendor - Deloitte, Byron Griffin (Corporate finance); DLA Piper, Jim Lavery (Legal).
Management - Babbe (Legal); Wyvern Partners, Martin Kitcatt (Corporate finance).