Lizzie Ball has joined Shard Credit Partners as its new chairman. Lizzie will be leading the corporate governance of Shard and its funds and sitting on investment committee. Lizzie was previously Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at Barings taking a leading role on special situations investments and portfolio restructurings in investments primarily in European private debt and high yield. Lizzie also supported the general counsel function at Barings with fund structuring and legal oversight of the business and worked with the direct lending team at Barings on structuring and execution of transactions. Lizzie is a qualified lawyer having started her career at Hogan Lovells working in both London and Hong Kong and specialising in acquisition and leveraged finance. She worked together with Alastair Brown at Merrill Lynch and Alastair Brown and Greg Lomas were clients of hers whilst they were at CIBC World Markets.
Ben Ellis has joined Shard Credit Partners as its new Business Development Director. Ben was previously Business Development Manager at boutique alternatives placement agent AZR Capital, where he covered and raised capital from UK and European investors. Prior to that, he worked for Amundi Asset Management, focusing on UK public sector pension funds. There, he worked very closely with the Allocation and Solutions team in facilitating the design, development and distribution of bespoke investment solutions to the UK Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) market. Ben will be leading the fundraising and investor relations team at Shard Credit Partners.
Alastair Brown, co-founder and CEO of Shard Credit Partners said: “We are delighted to have been able to attract such high calibre individuals into these key roles. I have worked with Lizzie on many occasions during the past twenty years and am excited that she has chosen to join us as we start the next stage of our company’s evolution. Lizzie brings a unique mix of commercial legal skills that will be put to good use in a variety of key areas.”
“Ben represents another critical hire as we embark on the next phase of growth in assets under management across two private credit strategies. We look forward to strengthening and developing our relationships with the LGPS and corporate pension fund sector and the investment consultant market under Ben’s leadership.”
Shard Credit Partners’ strategy is to become a leading provider of capital to entrepreneur and management-owned companies and private equity-owned companies focused on achieving transformational growth and expansion in the UK regions. In the past two years, Shard Credit Partners has invested more than £117 million in supporting regional Management Buy-Out transactions and M&A buy-and-build acquisition strategies, as well as growth capital expenditure financing.
About Shard Credit Partners:
Shard Credit Partners is an alternative investment fund manager focused on private credit strategies in the UK lower mid-market. Its funds seek to generate superior risk-adjusted returns from conservatively structured senior secured credit investments at low leverage, benefiting from robust documentation and a full suite of financial and non-financial covenants.
Shard Credit Partners is currently investing from its debut direct lending fund Shard Credit Partners Fund I, which held a first close in October 2017 at £90 million. Shard Credit Partners plans to hold a first close on its second UK lower mid-market direct lending fund during the second half of 2021. The firm has also recently launched a UK tech venture debt strategy, the only one of its kind.
Shard Credit Partners invests in solid small to medium sized businesses with strong management teams, supporting them by providing transformative growth capital and event driven financing in support of innovation, growth and expansion. The fund invests in businesses across all sectors and throughout the UK.
The firm has a strong ESG focus; in particular, it is a strong supporter of female entrepreneurs and firms with meaningful female leadership, ownership and senior management.
Recent investments include the financing in support of the acquisition of The Technology Group by Gradwell Communications in March 2021, the MBI of JST Services Ltd in Scotland, the MBO and buy-and-build strategy of eQuality Solutions Ltd in the North-East of England, and the MBO of Chameleon Technology Ltd in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, each of which completed in December 2020.
In 2020, Shard Credit Partners ranked eighth in the Debtwire UK Direct Lender league table published by Acuris.
Investor relations: IR@shardcreditpartners.com
Business: info@shardcreditpartners.com
Website: www.shardcreditpartners.com