Founded as a newspaper publisher in 1887, Ascential today, is a British business-to-business company providing events, intelligence and advisory services, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2016. It specialises in hosting world-class industry events, organised in two divisions: LIONS and Money 20/20. At the heart of each division are the best-in-class premium business-to-business events for the industries Ascential serves, with Cannes Lions awarding the best creative work since 1954, and Money20/20 guiding the financial technology industry since 2012. 

In 2023, Ascential announced its intention to complete its strategy to unlock significant shareholder value through the sale of its Digital Commerce division, which helps consumer brands improve their sales, share and profit on global digital platforms, and WGSN, which provides market intelligence and consumer trend forecasting to a range of luxury industries.

The sales realised an attractive valuation for Digital Commerce and WGSN, unlocking the sum of the parts valuation discount applied to Ascential’s portfolio of businesses. This enabled the Company to return significant cash to shareholders of ~£850m and realised combined proceeds of ~132% of Ascential’s market capitalisation immediately prior to 25^th January 2023. 

Following the announcements, Ascential sought to optimise its bank facilities from £450 million to a £225 million Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) and introduce changes to documentation to ensure the go-forward business is supported in its growth ambitions. Having been a strategic banking partner for the company, Ascential turned again to Natwest to lead the refinancing in the role of documentation coordinator – the same role NatWest had held for the previous refinancing in 2019/20 when Ascential raised £450m.

The NatWest deal team worked closely with Ascential, Legal Counsels, and the firm’s Debt Advisor to structure documentation on a forward starting basis, in order to allow for the disposals to occur whilst also providing protection in the event that the sales did not go ahead as anticipated. The refinancing completed following the sale of Digital Commerce to Omnicom in January and of WGSN to APAX in February. 

The NatWest team ensured the refinance was completed in line with tight timescales and that Ascential was able to raise its required financing. NatWest also retained its position as a Tier 1 lender by committing a £50 million hold within the newly refinanced structure, provided by a 7-bank consortium.

NatWest has been a longstanding banking partner for Ascential for over 10 years, through its journey under private equity ownership to its listing on the London Stock Exchange, and subsequent strategic divestments. We worked very closely with Ascential through the process touch all parts of the business from providing everyday banking and treasury management solutions to debt financing, risk management and loan markets advisory services.

Steve Bonnelame, Group Treasurer at Ascential, commented: “NatWest played an important role in delivering the success of our strategy. They are consistently a lead bank for Ascential we emerged from private equity ownership into the public markets, and focused on strategic growth opportunities, whilst divesting assets in mature markets. The NatWest team are proactive, dependable, and always bring valuable market insight.”

Alistair Morris, Relationship Director from NatWest’s TMT Coverage & Sector Content team, said: “NatWest is the biggest supporter of businesses in the UK, and we’re excited that we can actively contribute to the sustainable growth of the UK’s economy by supporting ambitious companies such as Ascential.”