Talent agency YMU hits financial turbulence with lending debts nearing $90 million.
U.K.-based Talent management agency YMU Group (You, Me & Us), which features a transatlantic music division, is exploring options for financial restructuring, according to Sky News. Reports indicate that the company has been involved in talks over its finances following a “slump in profits exacerbated by the pandemic.”
Sky reports that via sources in London’s financial district, YMU lenders Permira Credit and Lloyds Banking Group “hired AlixPartners several weeks ago to undertake an independent business review of the agency.” YMU reportedly owes Permira Credit and Lloyds Banking Group approximately $87 million (£70 million).
While a source cited as close to YMU suggested that there were no grounds for concern about the company’s future, Sky’s reporting indicates that a new Chief Restructuring Officer may head up a restructuring process at YMU and was “likely to draw takeover interest from industry rivals.”
According to YMU’s latest available accounts filed at UK Companies House, the company held net liabilities of £74.7 million “largely as a result of the Group’s long-term borrowings, which are not repayable until 2025 and beyond.”
“As part of the loan facilities with Permira Credit Solutions (…) and Lloyds Bank, the company has issued a cross guarantee secured on the assets held by the company and certain other companies within the group,” YMU wrote in its 2021 annual report.
“The cross guarantee relates to borrowings of YM&U Group Services Limited, comprising a loan facility of (GBP) £38,443,000 and a drawn acquisition facility of £15,242,000 with Permira, and with Lloyds Bank a loan facility of £5,888,000 and (USD) $12,000,000, and a revolving credit facility of £4,000,000.”
The Permira loan facilities are repayable on September 28, 2025, while the revolving credit facility and the Lloyds Bank facility are repayable on March 28, 2025.
YMU works with talent across music, sports, arts, and entertainment, majority-owned by private equity firm Trilantic. The company started in 2018 after U.K.-based James Grant Group, then part-owned by Metric Capital, sold a majority stake in its business to Trilantic, rebranding it as YMU.