LDC backs £207m SSP SBO

Alice Murray
16 March 2015

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LDC and Scottish Equity Partners (SPE) have acquired insurance technology provider SSP from previous backers Hellman & Friedman, in a deal valued at ТЃ207m.

The fresh capital will be used to accelerate SSP's international growth.

The deal was supported by a financing package supplied by US lenders Guggenheim Investments and Wells Fargo.

Previous investment
Hellman & Friedman acquired SSP through its HFCP VI fund in 2008.

Company
SSP provides IT systems to the insurance industry, providing broking technology services. Its back-office systems are designed to reduce the costs of operations and provide a smoother customer process.

The company is active in 50 countries and serves 1,000 insurance brokers, as well as 160 insurance companies. SSP employs 700 people and is headquartered in Halifax, with offices in Solihull and Aldershot. The company also operates in Australia, Asia, South Africa, India, Ireland and New Zealand.

SSP was established in 2002 through the management buy-in of Computer Sciences Corporation's retail insurance division. The company underwent a refinancing last year, replacing its £62.5m existing debt facilities with new senior debt of £125m and a revolving credit facility of £10m.

People
Laurence Walker is group CEO of SSP. John Garner and investment director Dale Anderson led the deal for LDC.

Advisers
Equity – Deloitte, Martin Jenkins, Paul Roberts (Corporate finance, debt advisory, tax); Addleshaw Goddard, Garry Elliott (Legal).
Vendor - Travers Smith, Paul Doleman (Legal).
Management - Squire Patton Boggs (Legal).