News
LDC exits Independent Governance Group to ECI Partners
30 Oct 2024
LDC, the private equity investor which is part of Lloyds Banking Group, has exited its investment in Independent Governance Group (IGG), the UK’s leading provider of professional pensions trusteeship and governance services, to ECI Partners (ECI).
The transaction generates a return of 2.8x, with revenues and headcount increasing by over 300% during the partnership. LDC has also reinvested alongside ECI to support the continued growth of the business.
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.
LDC first invested in Ross Trustees in November 2020, before backing the creation of IGG. During the partnership, LDC supported CEO Andrew Bradshaw and the wider management team to deliver strong organic and acquisitive growth.
This included significant investment in people and technology, in addition to supporting five complementary acquisitions that further strengthened IGG’s service offering to clients.
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.
Over the last 18 months, IGG has established a strong regional presence in Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester alongside its London headquarters. In the process, it has added pensions and employee benefits communications and investment governance expertise to its core services, delivered under the Like Minds and IC Select brands respectively.
IGG has also invested in significant product and service innovation to help trustee boards fulfil their responsibilities to scheme sponsors and members. This includes the launch of IGGiQ, a proprietary SaaS platform that provides holistic, real-time analysis of a scheme’s investment performance, and the introduction of IGGnite, its consolidated governance model for small pension schemes.
IGG’s commitment to sustainability saw the launch of its Sustainability Charter last year, setting out commitments to work with schemes and industry to promote and drive responsible investment, as well as ensuring the long-term interests of members are best served.
Andrew Bradshaw, CEO of IGG, said: “IGG has rapidly grown into one of the leading providers of trusteeship and governance services in the UK. This is due to the hard work of our skilled and diverse team, which ensures pension schemes of all shapes and sizes look to IGG to deliver the knowledge, experience and perspectives essential for strong governance. Thank you to LDC who have supported us on our journey so far, enabling us to strengthen our market position and achieve key strategic goals.
We are all very excited about the next stage of our journey. With ECI on board alongside the continued support of LDC, we are well-positioned to pursue our plans for growth, deliver innovative solutions to meet our clients’ evolving needs and, importantly, create new career opportunities for our talent.”
The LDC team on the transaction were Partner and Head of West Midlands Chris Handy, Partner Tracy Bownes, Investment Director Richard Godwin and Investment Manager Demetri Theofanou.
Chris Handy, Partner at LDC, added: “Over the last four years, Andrew and the management team at IGG have delivered transformational growth and created a market leader in the pensions industry. We’ve had the privilege of supporting their growth journey and the success they have achieved is testament to the ambition and capability of their entire team. We’re looking forward to continuing our support for the business.”
Tracy Bownes, Partner at LDC, added: “I’m proud to have collaborated with the board of IGG to grow and enhance their proposition to the pensions market. Throughout the team have been bold and ambitious, striving for professional excellence, recruiting and developing talented employees and establishing their unique brand of customer service. I look forward to seeing them evolve during the next period of LDC’s relationship with them.”
Advisors to LDC and IGG: KPMG (Corporate Finance), PwC (Financial, Commercial and Tax Due Diligence), Gateley (Legal); Eversheds (Management Legal) or Liberty (Management Corporate Finance).
Advisors to ECI: PwC (Corporate Finance & Commercial Due Diligence), Squire Patton Boggs (Legal), A&M (Financial Due Diligence) & Clearwater (Debt Advisory).
