PwC advises Blake and Associates

PwC South Africa Corporate Finance is pleased to announce that it has acted as the lead financial advisor to Blake and Associates Holdings (Blake), a leading South African BPO business with global presence, in the sale of a 41% equity interest to Vantage Capital Partners (Vantage), the largest mezzanine finance asset manager in Africa, and the raising of a Vantage mezzanine acquisition facility to fund the company’s global growth plans. 

With its legacy debt collection services business, Blake is an integrated service provider with five key subsidiaries, offering several customer interface services across the client life cycle. The business is experiencing rapid growth due to increased demand for its services from the United Kingdom and North American customers. 

PwC provided a range of corporate finance advisory services to Blake. The journey began with the development of a credible business plan, in collaboration with the various Blake subsidiaries. Subsequently strategic equity options available to drive the company’s growth initiatives were reviewed and assessed. Finally, PwC meticulously crafted  a credible equity story to run a sell side equity process, together with raising a substantial acquisition facility. Several feasible bolt-on acquisition targets were identified, to fulfil  the ambitions of the shareholders to rapidly ramp up the international client base and deliver on Blake’s existing ability to service international markets by leveraging a lower-cost domestic base. 

A competitive sell-side process was run to provide an exit for the founding shareholders 41% interest. An acquisition facility was also raised in order for Blake to pursue the bolt-on acquisition opportunities. 

The advice provided by PwC Corporate Finance in executing this transaction firmly places Blake on a meaningful growth trajectory.