Review Adapt Evolve

Tackling the business impacts of COVID-19

Restructuring Advisory

Corporate Finance

Debt Advisory

Sale safeguards future for strategic gas facility

Debt deal for a windows market leader

MBO safeguards jobs for historic paper business

Halite Energy Group Ltd

Anglian Home Improvements

Arjo Wiggins Fine Papers Ltd

The earlier clients engage, the more options that are available, which in turn increases the ability to deliver a solution that maximises stakeholder value. Geoff Rowley Restructuring Advisory

Halite Energy Group Ltd (HEGL) owned land in north-west England, and the rights to develop a strategically important gas storage facility that could account for 25% of the UK’s gas storage capacity. Significant funding had already been received, but the development needed a further £500 million which existing funders couldn’t commit to; they had already sought buyers for HEGL. FRP was appointed to find a buyer under an accelerated sale process. Our Corporate Finance team secured a solvent sale of HEGL – crucial to ensuring UK Government consents to develop the storage facility remained intact – to Cheshire Energy Ltd, part of the NPL Group.

FRP was engaged by Alchemy Special Opportunities, private equity owner of Anglian Home Improvements, to manage a debt- raising process aimed at generating additional liquidity from the company’s asset base. The deal was made more challenging because of a complicated company structure and the backdrop of a tough UK financing environment. Our Debt Advisory team ran a competitive, asset-based lender process, including developing marketing materials, managing asset valuations, and negotiating the terms of the deal. We were able to deliver the necessary refinancing in a tight timeframe before existing facilities matured, securing a facility from the leading lender that delivered 20% more availability than its competitor.

FRP was appointed administrators of the UK operations of paper manufacturer Arjo Wiggins – a business with a 250-year history – after insolvency proceedings at the group’s French parent company. Following an extensive sale process, our Corporate Finance and Restructuring Advisory teams moved ahead with a management buy-out (MBO) proposal, working with all stakeholders including key lenders, suppliers and the Scottish Government, to help deliver a funding solution that enabled the sale to conclude. The resulting MBO safeguarded around 500 jobs at the company’s two historic paper mills in Aberdeen and Chartham, Kent, and repaid the majority of the secured debt.