British caravan and RV parts wholesale company Miriad Products (MRDB Holdings Limited Group) has received a significant follow-on investment from its long-term capital partner Duke Royalty Limited. The funds will allow Miriad to buyout and cancel all of its subordinated vendor loan notes (VLNs) and will see Duke increase its equity interest in Miriad up to 30 per cent.
Guernsey-based Duke Royalty has exited its investment in Irish telecoms and IT services firm Welltel, generating a 27pc return.
Meanwhile, UK private equity firm Livingbridge said it has invested in Welltel, which has about 3,500 clients including Permanent TSB, Zurich, Specsavers and Northern Ireland Water. Livingbridge said it intends to support Welltel in further acquisition activity.
Duke Royalty Ltd on Thursday said it has made a follow-on investment of EUR1.1 million into its existing royalty partner, BHPC Ltd, an Irish brokerage.
The financing provider said the investment will provide growth capital to BHPC, which will position the business well for 2021 as Ireland recovers from Covid-19.
Duke’s original investment into BHPC was in August 2019, totalling EUR4.6 million, with the investment announced on Thursday increasing Duke’s invested capital to EUR5.7 million.
A Derbyshire company which supplies parts to the caravan industry has landed a £3.1m cash injection from an alternative finance firm.
Duke Royalty has invested the cash into the MRDB Holdings Limited Group, which trades as Miriad Products in Foston.
Formed in 1977, Miriad is the largest privately-owned recreational vehicle parts wholesale company in the UK.
Duke Royalty (DUKE:23p), an Aim-traded company that makes its money by providing capital to companies in exchange for rights to a small percentage of their future revenues over a typical term of 25-40 years, has issued results for the 12 months to 31 March 2020. They reveal the short-term financial hit from the Covid-19 pandemic on the portfolio, and the opportunity, too.
Alternative capital provider Duke Royalty said on Wednesday that the “general upturn” in trading seen across its partners in the first quarter had continued into the second.
The global pandemic has dealt yet another blow to business in general, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in particular.
Even at the beginning of the year, the level of indebtedness across this community was untenable. To make matters worse, recent research has highlighted that a quarter of a million companies are at risk of collapsing under £35bn ($44bn) of unsustainable debt taken on during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is foreboding, to say the least.
Duke Royalty shares jumped by a fifth after the financing company reported a strong pickup in trading for the companies it backs.
Welltel, a Dublin-based telephony, network and connectivity solutions provider, has received an additional £2.3m (€2.5m) in backing from AIM-listed finance firm Duke Royalty.
The money will be used by Welltel to help bankroll the acquisition of Irish firm Globalnet Solutions, which trades as Novi.
