Financial Services

Finance Ireland buys time with a €50m equity injection

Chief says it might be five years before non-bank lender goes public as market turmoil puts IPO out of reach

Finance Ireland, led by Billy Kane, has raised €50 million in fresh equity from UK asset manager M&G and existing shareholder Pimco

Cantillon's face
Cantillon
Thu Jul 7 2022 - 05:00

Finance Ireland, the Billy Kane-led non-bank lender that traces its roots back to 2002, hasn’t had the best of luck with the stock market over the years.

While the company – originally known as Shared Home Investment Plan (Ship) – secured a market quotation in 2006 through a reverse takeover of a London-listed cash shell, it would quietly de-list as markets were cratering in 2008 and stop writing new business in 2009.

In late 2010, the business crept into the car financing market, with funding from UK merchant bank Close Brothers, laying the groundwork for what would become the largest non-bank lender in the State.

Fresh from having written almost €800 million of new loans in 2019 – covering leasing finance to SMEs, motor finance, agri-lending, commercial property and a fledgling mortgage business – Kane set out to raise more than €100 million in an initial public offering (IPO).

READ MORE

His plans were thwarted in March 2020 as Covid-19 swept across the globe, sending financial markets into a tizzy.

Kane suggested to The Irish Times in April last year that his company could look at again at floating in the second half of 2022, conscious that he would need to raise capital to pursue a plan to move the car-finance business from being funded by Close Brothers on to its own balance sheet. In addition, there were also a bunch of long-standing investors, including the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), that were itching to move on.

But any hopes of a fresh stab at an IPO in the near term would, of course, have been dashed by the slump in global equity markets in recent months.

However, it emerged on Wednesday that Finance Ireland had found a new equity investor in UK asset manager M&G, which, together with an existing shareholder, Pimco, had bought out ISIF and a group of other small investors. Crucially, the two committed €50 million of fresh equity to the business as it continues to grow. Indeed, the fundraise had been in the works since last August, even as markets were riding high.

Kane said on Wednesday that it might be five years before an IPO is considered again. Will the markets finally play ball then?

READ NEXT
LATEST STORIES