Alantra advised Management and MML on the refinancing of Arena Group

Jan 2016

Debt refinancing

Alantrahas advised Management and MML on the refinancing of Arena Group.

Arena Group provides event overlay services, designing and delivering complete temporary environments for the most prestigious sporting and cultural occasions in the global calendar. Arena has over 100 years of experience and works in partnership with iconic events including the Ryder Cup, F1 Grand Prix, Wimbledon, Superbowl, the Olympics Jubilee and locally Edgbaston cricket ground, to name just a few. Its experienced team provides bespoke solutions which maintain clients’ brand consistency and quality of delivery the world over.

2012 was a significant year for the company with the successful delivery of a number of iconic projects for the London 2012 Olympics and securing funding support from MML Capital and Sports Investment Partners.This proved to be the launch pad for a significant period of growth.

Since the success of 2012 Arena Group has also built its presence through acquisition, acquiring Karl’s Event Services in the US and Asia Tents International in Malaysia, providing Arena Group with a truly global reach. The Group now has premises in the UK, Ireland, USA, Portugal, Spain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Malaysia and Brazil, coupled with a network of global partners to extend local capabilities, making it a truly global business.

Looking to the future Management and MML were keen to refinance the business and find a partner that would be supportive of their growth plans and Alantra’s debt team, led by partner Andrew Shellard, was appointed to look at the options available.

The final outcome of this process was a refinance with PNC Bank in the USA and HSBC across the rest of the world. The business now has a financing structure to allow the business to grow in the coming years.