LGB & Co. is very pleased to announce that Simon Lough has agreed to join as an advisor to its Board of Directors. Simon has extensive experience in debt capital markets, wealth management and the City, which will be very relevant to the further development of LGB’s business.

Simon began his career in the debt capital markets of Kleinwort Benson in 1984.  He was seconded to Tokyo where his responsibilities included private placements of MTNs with institutional investors.  He moved to Banca della Svizzera Italiana in Tokyo and then in 1996 Simon transitioned to wealth management. He opened the London office of Heartwood, where he ran both the client and investment teams before becoming Chief Executive in November 2008. He led Heartwood through a period of sustained organic growth before its acquisition by Handelsbanken in May 2013. Simon remained at Heartwood for a further three years.  During this period, he represented the wealth management sector on the FCA’s Smaller Business Practitioner Panel.  Between 2019 and 2023 Simon was a non-executive director of WH Ireland, becoming chairman in 2022.

Simon balances commercial and not for profit activities. He is Deputy Chair of the Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South and Chair of Haberdashers’ Knights Academy, one of the Trust’s schools in Lewisham. He was Chair of the charity Envision from 2015-2023.

Simon Lough commented: “I am very pleased to join LGB & Co.  I enjoy the challenge of helping to scale businesses of its size.  I believe LGB addresses a real market gap:  as the wealth management market becomes increasingly commoditised, I think there is a real opportunity for specialist firms like LGB to offer differentiated investment opportunities to sophisticated private clients, particularly in fixed income.”

Andrew Boyle, Chairman of LGB & Co. commented: “My colleagues and I are delighted that Simon is joining us as we are sure we will benefit from his expertise in the capital markets, wealth management and corporate governance.  We now have a well-established business and are in a position to engage more actively with strategic partners and larger issuing and investing clients.  Simon’s advice will be invaluable in this regard.”

We are pleased to announce the establishment of a £15 million secured medium term note (“MTN”) programme for specialist property lender Roma Finance (“Roma”).

Roma focuses on providing lending for property bridging, development, and buy-to-let loans in the UK for property and construction professionals. The company was established in 2010 by its existing management team following extensive careers in the property lending sector.

Roma’s approach to lending is fast, flexible, simple and trusted. These are pillars for the Company’s approach to business and its personal service, speed of delivery and commercial mindset. The company has continually invested in its operational platforms and systems to ensure its loan process is as fast and simple as possible whilst maintaining robust levels of underwriting.

LGB Capital Markets completed its first issue of notes in conjunction with the establishment of the MTN programme in July. The programme will provide funding subordinated to Roma’s senior funders to enable the company to further expand its own book and continue its strong growth trajectory. It is expected that the funding will enable the company to grow its loan book to around £200m by May 2024.

Scott Marshall, Managing Director, ‎Roma Finance, said: “We are delighted to be working with LGB as we continue to grow our loan book, develop innovative market-leading products, support UK property entrepreneurs and invest in both new technology and talented people. LGB is a like-minded and refreshing organisation to partner with which has added value to our business and we look forward to a strong long-term working relationship. ”

Fergus Rendall, Director, LGB Capital Markets, said: “We are pleased to have established this £15m programme for Roma, which is a profitable, growing business with an exceptional track record. Investors were impressed by the experience of Roma’s management team and the company’s robust processes and prudent approach to credit underwriting, and we look forward to engaging with new investors through regular note issuance.”

Roma’s new programme now brings the total value of programmes arranged by LGB to £375 million.

More information on our MTN programmes can be found here.

LGB Capital Markets has arranged an increase to the Medium Term Note programme of Simply Asset Finance to £65 million from £39 million.

Simply Asset Finance is a top 50 UK asset finance provider with a well distributed customer base across the UK and diversified asset classes. It offers finance products as a secured lender to SMEs to fund the purchase of business-critical equipment and to free up working capital. Simply has been recognised as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe by the Financial Times, making the top 50 from a total of 1,000 companies.

LGB first established Simply’s £20 million MTN programme in March 2020. The programme allows Simply to access funding from a diversified network of private investors managed by LGB Investments. It is subordinated to senior funders and contributes towards book growth by partially funding new business while reducing the company’s blended cost of capital.

With £35 million of notes having been successfully issued under the programme – and Simply having delivered a record performance in FY22 – the company’s management was keen to ensure it had additional capacity under the programme to facilitate growth and utilise its flexibility. The programme increase was completed in May 2023 following strong support from existing noteholders.

Stefan Wolvaardt, Chief Financial Officer of Simply Asset Finance, commented:

“The increase in the programme from LGB comes at a crucial moment of Simply’s growth. Over the past year we’ve celebrated some significant milestones, including £1bn lent since the business’ inception, and a successful FY22 which saw our loan book increase by 36% year on year. The funding increase will help us to continue growing and support even more UK businesses. The team at LGB are a pleasure to work with and we look forward to continuing our strong relationship.”

Fergus Rendall, Director, LGB Capital Markets, commented:

“The continued success of the programme has highlighted the strength of the investment proposition, particularly the quality of Simply’s management team and shareholders, and the attractive terms available to institutional and sophisticated private investors. We look forward to working with Simply and providing an important source of capital as it continues to grow.”

More about the LGB MTN Programmes here.

More about Simply Asset Finance here.

SRT Marine Systems plc Press Release: £20m Increase to Medium Term Note Programme Capacity

May 2023

SRT Marine Systems plc (‘SRT’), a global provider of maritime domain awareness systems and technologies for security, safety and environmental protection is pleased to advise that it has secured a £20 million increase in capacity on its existing SRT Secured Note Programme (the ‘Programme’). This programme is arranged and managed by LGB Capital Markets.

The Programme enables the issue of notes to LGB’s private investors with varying terms and provides SRT with a flexible source of working capital. The increased headroom provides working capital flexibility in anticipation of some significant new system contracts in the future which have initial working capital requirements during their first few months to fund equipment purchases prior to first deliveries and subsequent receipt of customer payments. Notes currently outstanding via the Programme stands at £7.7m and the increase in capacity does not increase SRT’s debt outstanding. However, it will enable SRT to issue new notes and refinance existing notes in future.

Simon Tucker, CEO of SRT Marine Systems, commented:

“The note programme is an excellent flexible source of working capital for our business. With several pending new contracts, one of which is very significant and subject to a recent LoI, we felt it prudent to take early steps to secure a proven route for the initial working capital requirements.”

LINK to original press release

We are pleased to announce the arrangement of a £15 million secured medium term note (“MTN”) programme for alternative finance business Shire Leasing Plc (“Shire”).

Shire is an award-winning leasing business, principally offering finance products to UK SMEs to fund the acquisition of business-critical equipment and free up working capital. It is a well-known brand within the industry – having been founded over 32 years ago – and the business has a strong track record of growth and profitability, with its own book currently standing at over £160m and net assets exceeding £20m.

LGB Capital Markets completed the arrangement of the MTN programme and a £1.5 million first issue of notes under it in July 2022. The programme will provide funding subordinated to Shire’s senior wholesale funders to enable the company to further invest in its business platforms, operations, own book, and other opportunities as they arise.

“We are delighted to be strengthening our funding position with the £15m MTN Programme. As a company that strives to break barriers and develop innovative finance solutions, we see this as an important source of funding to increase our working capital, invest in new opportunities and continue to deliver a market-leading service to the UK SME market. We have been very impressed with LGB through the raising of the first £1.5m and we look forward to building our relationship further as we continue working together.”

Despite the current market backdrop, the modest size of the first issue resulted in an inaugural book closing at record speed and oversubscription. Investors were impressed by the strength and breadth of Shire’s management team and the company’s progressive, technology and values-led approach, and the company looks forward to engaging with new investors through regular note issuance.

Shire’s new programme now brings the total value of programmes arranged by LGB to £300 million. More information on our MTN programmes can be found here.

LGB Capital Markets has arranged an increase to the Medium Term Note (MTN) programme of Acamar Films Limited from £25 million to £40 million.

Acamar Films Limited (“Acamar”) is an award-winning creative studio based in London and is most prominently known as the producer of the hit pre-school animated series, ‘Bing’. With more than 100 episodes produced to date, Bing’s success has been demonstrated both domestically (with over 750 million BBC iPlayer streams to date) and internationally in markets such as Italy and Poland. As the owner of Bing’s underlying intellectual property rights, in addition to media distribution, Acamar has in recent years developed a commercial IP licensing programme that comprises consumer products, live events and experiences. Following recent market launch in the USA in partnership with WarnerMedia, Acamar strives for global growth, by also launching Bing in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia over the coming years.

The programme increase, from £25 million to £40 million, represents the third increase since LGB Capital Markets first established a £7.5 million programme for the company in November 2016. Through LGB, Acamar has built and maintained strong relationships with its noteholders over this period, who have been key in supporting Acamar’s fundraising strategy and growth plans.

Acamar has issued over £19 million of notes under its programme to date, with funding provided by a diversified network of private investors managed by LGB Investments. The increase will give Acamar the required runway to refinance maturing notes as they fall due, as well as capacity to raise incremental investment capital to support investment into content assets and global growth.

The success of the programme has highlighted the strength of Acamar’s investment proposition, the quality of its management team, and the continued growth in the strategic asset value of Bing as an entertainment IP asset.

“Acamar’s MTN Programme is enormously valuable to us, affording us important flexibility to meet our needs by issuing and refinancing notes on an ongoing basis. LGB’s team bring real professionalism and rigour to the ongoing management of our Programme and have helped us to build strong direct relationships with private investors. Our lives were made much easier by LGB’s diligent management of the Programme increase process – thanks to the whole team for your continued support.” — Harry Penrose, Director, Corporate Finance

We look forward to continuing to work with the company and supporting management as it continues to grow.

Acamar’s programme increase now brings the total value of programmes arranged by LGB to £284 million. It is the second programme limit increase in 2022 and follows two programme limit increases in 2021. More information on our MTN programmes can be found here.

Simply Asset Finance – Programme Increase – February 2022

LGB Capital Markets has arranged an increase to the Medium Term Note (MTN) programme of Simply Asset Finance from £20 million to £39 million.

Simply Asset Finance is a top 50 UK asset finance provider with a well distributed customer base across the UK and diversified asset classes. It offers finance products as a secured lender to SMEs to fund the purchase of business-critical equipment and to free up working capital. Last week Simply was recognised as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe by the Financial Times, making the top 50 from a total of 1,000 companies.

LGB first established Simply’s £20 million MTN programme in March 2020. The programme allows Simply to access funding from a diversified network of private investors managed by LGB Investments. It is subordinated to senior funders and contributes towards book growth by partially funding new business while reducing the company’s blended cost of capital.

With £18 million of notes having been successfully issued under the programme – and Simply having delivered a record performance in FY21 – the company’s management was keen to ensure it had additional capacity under the programme to facilitate growth and utilise its flexibility. The programme increase was completed in February 2022 following strong support from existing noteholders.

The success of the programme has highlighted the strength of the investment proposition, particularly the quality of Simply’s management team and shareholders, and the attractive terms available to institutional and sophisticated private investors.

Stefan Wolvaardt, Chief Financial Officer of Simply Asset Finance, commented:

“The programme has been a very important source of funding and this increase ensures Simply can continue to grow and support UK SMEs. Over the last couple of years the team at LGB have surpassed our expectations with their proactivity and professionalism. It has been a real pleasure working with them and looking forward to continuing to do so.”

We look forward to working with the company and providing an important source of capital as it continues to grow.

Simply’s programme increase now brings the total value of programmes arranged by LGB to £269 million. It follows two programme limit increases in 2021, which also brought the number of active clients with programme sizes of at least £20 million to six. More information on our MTN programmes can be found here.

Written by Megan Dempster

LGB investors were recently invited to participate in the IPO for Clean Power Hydrogen plc (CPH2). The IPO, led by Cenkos Securities plc, was over-subscribed and raised gross proceeds of £30.5m before expenses. The company was admitted to AIM on 16 February 2022 with the code CPH2.

At LGB & Co. Limited our investment approach is centred around four overarching themes, with CPH2 being an interesting proposition in the context of our theme of decarbonisation. The company’s IPO presentation was interesting, not just for the company itself, but as a comparison with existing fuel cell companies, and as a reminder that there are a plethora of emerging technologies.

CPH2 is a UK-based electrolyser business, so a generator of green hydrogen using electricity (hopefully green electricity). The company, founded in 2012, was largely owned by its existing management and founders. Although the company was relatively early-stage compared to some of its competitors, it had a substantial technical partner in the large German engineering company KCA Deutag. The company has also already won a commercial tender with Northern Ireland Water and has entered into a partnership with Octopus Hydrogen, demonstrating there is a clear demand for its unique approach and technology.

This market is already being addressed by fuel cell manufacturers such as ITM, where the founders of CPH2 cut their teeth. CPH2’s technology is differentiated by using a membrane-free electrolyser and cryogenic separation of hydrogen and oxygen. This avoids the problems of performance degradation that have delayed fuel cell development, and reduces build costs, also avoiding fluorine and platinum group metal usage. The company intend to offer 25 year warranties on its installations. CPH2 has IP both in the membrane free cell and in the cryogenic separator.

The company is delivering a first installation to Northern Ireland Water this month and is manufacturing a first (1MW order) unit for Octopus Hydrogen. The intention is for the company to both manufacture itself (in Doncaster and Northern Ireland) and to license out production. It already has a pipeline of >2GW by 2030. The German alternative energy firm BayWa r.e. AG have now signed a letter of intent with Octopus to build hydrogen generating plants for Octopus, so they are clearly pushing on with the project.

Management is very ambitious and believe they can achieve 10% market share of the projected 40GW European 2030 market. At the time of writing, Cenkos have the company breaking even at EBITDA and at net level in 2023 and generating £22m of EBITDA in 2024.

The company has also been awarded the London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark, which recognises companies that derive 50% or more of their total annual revenues from products and services that contribute to the global green economy.

If you are interested in becoming a client of LGB, please get in touch for more information. Furthermore, we continue to work with companies in the digitisation, the new age consumer, the future of healthcare, and the decarbonisation sectors. We would be pleased to hear about compelling companies with validated business models in this space.

LGB Capital Markets has now arranged over £250 million of medium term note (MTN) programme capacity for its corporate clients. This follows two programme limit increases in 2021, which also brought the total amount of active clients with programme sizes of at least £20 million to six.

This milestone reflects the longevity of LGB’s corporate relationships, the continued success of our clients and how MTN programmes are seen as long-term funding solutions. Since the inception of LGB’s MTN programmes in 2010, seven clients have each undertaken at least two programme increases, reflecting the value that MTN programmes have in strengthening balance sheets and facilitating growth. Through continued utilisation of their programmes, clients have been able to access funding quickly and efficiently under flexible terms and with strong private investor backing that not only provides liquidity but also a funding relationship that is able to grow as they do.

Notwithstanding its broad sector focus, LGB Capital Markets has developed a speciality in the financial services space, as evidenced by the growing a number of alternative lending clients. This expertise was especially helpful during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the financial services industry was negatively affected by worsening credit profiles and increasing bad debts. Throughout this period, LGB Capital Markets was able to raise vital funding and provide sound strategic advice to these companies, enabling them to navigate through the pandemic effectively and in a position to grow after it.

The flexibility of the MTN programmes has enabled issuers across many other sectors to raise substantial funding from LGB’s broad investor base.

If your company is looking for funding, or to discuss how LGB Capital Markets might help your growth strategy, please get in touch here.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey sponsored a paper that highlights the intention of central banks to issue digital currencies. Below, LGB CEO Andrew Boyle provided his remarks:

Anyone interested in the future of the financial and fiscal systems should be paying close attention to the BoE’s consideration of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).  On 14th October the UK published a Public Policy Principles paper on the topic in the context of its current presidency of the G7.  The paper is very cautious in tone because the BoE is well aware of both the merits of CBDCs for central banks and the potential disadvantages to the private sector.  Monopoly CBDCs could eliminate leakage in the financial system in terms of the black economy and underpayment of tax.  The shadow economy (unregistered economic transactions) is estimated to be equal to at least 10% of UK GDP.  CBDCs could improve data collection, the implementation of monetary policy and the prevention of financial crime. 

On the other hand, if a monopoly is established every transaction completed in a financial system would be known with obvious implications and risks for privacy.  The paper also mentions the opportunity for the government to provide facilities to the unbanked, but it is unlikely that the retail banking system as a whole would survive the introduction of a CBDC. The government could become the provider of bank accounts, which would bring the opportunity to retire the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  CBDCs would increase the risks of operational failure or sabotage, but at least in this area the paper offers the carrot that building the infrastructure for CBDCs would be an opportunity for entrepreneurial private sector firms.  No doubt many will seize it.

The direction of travel towards CBDCs being introduced and developing a monopoly is very clear, particularly when one considers the measures implemented in the last few years to move us away from cash and the FCA’s ongoing efforts to stifle crypto currencies as unregulated investments rather than recognise them as alternative currencies. Soon the case will be made that unlike Bitcoin, CBDCs involve no environmentally harmful mining.  Is this trend a good thing?  Ultimately your view will reflect the degree to which you believe in the goodness or otherwise of government.

Read the full paper here.