Private equity firm Dunedin has completed the debt refinancing of trust management company Hawksford International.

Private equity firm Dunedin has completed the debt refinancing of trust management company Hawksford International, formerly known as Rathbone Trust International.

The firm, which provided £13.5 million of senior debt to fund October’s management buy-out (MBO) of Hawksford from FTSE 250 parent company Rathbone Brothers, has sold that debt on to Royal Bank of Scotland. Dunedin retains its ‘significant minority stake’ in Hawksford, alongside the management team who hold the remainder of the equity.

John Hudson, a director of Dunedin who led the MBO and refinancing, tells GrowthBusiness that it was not possible to secure bank debt for the original £23.5 million buy-out in the time available.

‘We were under some fairly tight time pressure from the vendor to complete the deal,’ says Hudson. ‘We were in discussions with two or three banks but the level of questioning was intensive and we decided to shortcut the process for the vendors’ benefit.’

Hudson adds that the refinancing has no effect on the financial security of the business, which is planning expansion in Switzerland and the Far East.