Windfall for staff after £152m NES Global Talent refinancing
HIGH-growth North West international recruiter NES Global Talent has agreed a multi-bank, Anglo-US refinancing deal worth £152m, which has led to a £6m windfall for around 100 employees.
The funding will enable the Altrincham-based group to expand its network of overseas offices from 37 to more than 60 over the next four years. It has just opened in Stavanger, Norway, and the next locations will be Cape Town and New Orleans.
The refinancing, syndicated through over 15 US and UK credit organisations, will also allow NES to make acquisitions, should suitable opportunities arise.
The deal replaces a previous £105m financing package with a club of three UK banks, and comes a year after NES changed hands in a £234m deal lead by AEA Investors.
Group finance director Stephen Buckley said: “This significant refinancing will help us boost our existing operations as well as expand into new territories around the world. We are focused on sustainable, organic growth, however, this deal also provides us with the flexibility to make acquisitions, if this becomes part of our business strategy in the future.
“As well as enabling us to fund future investment and pay down acquisition debt, the refinancing has also resulted in a dividend being paid out to our staff shareholders. This is great news for our employees and a fitting reward for the hard work they have put in to our business.”
He said the refinancing had allowed around $10m to be shared by staff who had reinvested in the business last year at the time of the AEA deal. He said up to 100 UK-based employees would share in the windfall.
Chief executive Neil Tregarthen, added: “This US-led refinancing is great affirmation of our business strategy and gives us the type of financial firepower that is usually only the domain of large publicly quoted companies. It will further support our vision of being a £100m annual profit business by 2020.
“With only two weeks of our 2013 financial year left, we expect group profits to be over £33m and in turn, provide a fabulous trajectory into 2014.
“With the support of our new partners, AEA Investors, we believe that we are now perfectly positioned to build our market share even further and provide support to our multinational client base, wherever they may operate in the world.”
