LONDON & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Crescent Capital Group LP, a leading alternative credit investment firm, announced today that its European Specialty Lending strategy led the financing in support of the acquisition of Independent Governance Group (IGG), a leading provider of professional trustee, governance and secretarial services to the UK pension sector, by ECI Partners, the UK-based mid-market private equity firm.
IGG was founded in February 2023 following the merger of two long-established firms, Ross Trustees and Independent Trustee Services (ITS), creating a singular destination for best-in-class professional pensions trusteeship, scheme secretarial, pensions managerial and governance services. Today, IGG employs more than 200 people and its focus on an integrated approach with clients has won it 13 industry awards over the last three years. The business provides professional services to 386 pension schemes with total scheme assets of £324bn.
“IGG has experienced meaningful growth in the pensions industry, while attracting top talent and providing superior services to its growing client base of pension schemes of all types and sizes across a broad range of sectors. Crescent is proud to support IGG’s acquisition by ECI Partners, a sponsor with a proven track record of successful partnerships with high-growth companies,” said Christine Vanden Beukel, Managing Director and head of Crescent’s European Specialty Lending strategy.
About Crescent Capital Group LP
Crescent is a global credit investment manager with $43 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2024. For over 30 years, the firm has focused on below investment grade credit through strategies that invest in marketable and privately originated debt securities including senior bank loans, high yield bonds, as well as private senior, unitranche and junior debt securities. Crescent is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago and London with more than 225 employees globally. Crescent is a part of SLC Management, the institutional alternatives and traditional asset management business of Sun Life. For more information about Crescent, visit www.crescentcap.com.
About IGG
IGG is the UK’s leading provider of professional pensions trusteeship and governance services.
Widely viewed as a leader in its field, professional pension trusteeship and scheme governance services are at the heart of IGG’s offering and are delivered through a combination of chair of trustees, co-trustee and professional corporate sole trustee appointments. Almost 150 of IGG’s appointments are to act as sole corporate trustee. Pensions support services strengthen the business’ professional trusteeship side of the business, and provide secretarial, pensions managerial, member engagement and governance solutions for over 200 appointments.
The 200+ team includes pensions expertise drawn from many different backgrounds, such as pensions managers and consultants, lawyers, investment specialists, communications specialists and actuaries. The team is known for providing diversity of thought and wide-ranging collective experience.
The team works with over 380 schemes with a combined asset value of approximately £324bn. Schemes range in size from the low millions to multi-billions, with over 10% of IGG’s schemes being £1bn+.
IGG is a multi-award-winning active member of the Association of Professional Pension Trustees (APPT). Members of the group play a prominent part in APPT committees, and all Trustee Directors are fully accredited as professional trustees.
About ECI Partners
ECI is a leading private equity investor, focused on offering collaborative support to management teams. ECI prides itself on being straightforward to deal with, helping where it believes it can add value, and working in absolute alignment with management teams. This is how it has delivered such exceptional results for over 45 years.
ECI manages funds of over £2bn and invests in growth businesses valued up to £300m, investing as either a majority or a minority investor. Its growth focus is integral to how it has built its team. ECI has created the capability to support management teams on anything, from sourcing and executing acquisitions, developing market entry strategies, understanding and improving employee engagement, or ensuring tech platforms can scale as quickly as the companies they back, and much more.
ECI closed its latest fund, ECI 12, at a hard cap of £1bn, marking a 40% increase on its predecessor.
