Victory Park Capital Expands Strategic Partnership with Borro
Press Release
Nov 16, 2017
Firm restructures investment to strengthen existing business
CHICAGO and LONDON – November 16, 2017 – Victory Park Capital (VPC), an investment firm focused on private middle market debt and equity investments, announced today that it has taken a majority stake in Borro Ltd., a leading consumer lender that offers loans secured by luxury assets. VPC originally provided Borro with a credit facility in Feb. 2014 to support its growing loan portfolio and will now expand its involvement to also include working capital financing along with strategic and operational support.
As part of the transaction, Tom Welch and Gordon Watson, partners at VPC, have joined Borro’s board of directors.
“We’re very excited to expand our relationship with Borro by partnering with its new management team to help the company refocus on its core business, where we see a lot of opportunity,” said Welch. “Having been involved with the business since early 2014, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunistic investment.”
“Victory Park Capital is the ideal partner for the next phase of Borro’s development, based on the firm’s expertise and the team’s knowledge of our operations,” said John Allbrook, CEO of Borro. “Despite several business and leadership shifts over the past two years, we feel confident that with VPC’s partnership, we can capitalize on what remains a fragmented and niche market that continues to be underserved.”
The transaction, which required change of control approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), closed on November 15.
About Borro
Borro launched in 2008 in the UK, and has gone on to open offices in New York and Los Angeles. It is the leading international online platform for luxury asset-backed lending and has defined a new lending category in a climate where loans of this type were few and far between. Borro offers loans from $5,000 – $10,000,000 secured against luxury assets including fine art, antiques, jewelry, luxury watches, fine wine, prestige and classic cars and other high value assets.
About Victory Park Capital
Victory Park Capital Advisors, LLC (“VPC”) is a privately held, SEC-registered, global alternative investment firm. VPC provides opportunistic capital solutions to both emerging and established businesses with an expertise investing across various sectors where traditional sources of capital are limited. The firm’s differentiated offerings leverage an extensive network of industry relationships, disciplined deal origination, creative financing capabilities and broad credit structuring and special situations expertise. The firm was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Chicago with additional offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.victoryparkcapital.com.