Golub Capital was the Administrative Agent, Co-Lead Arranger and Joint Bookrunner, on a new credit facility to back the buy of iPipeline by Thoma Bravo.
iPipeline’s software is used to automate the life insurance sales process in order to reduce the time, cost and error rate of processing insurance applications. The software provides automated processing from pre-sale, point-of-sale, and post-sale support, to reporting, consumer delivery and agency management. Customers include insurance carriers and agents (such as financial advisors and independent insurance agents), and distributors (such as banks, broker-dealers and general agencies).
iPipeline has approximately 400 employees and is headquartered west of Philadelphia in Exton, PA with additional offices in Fort Lauderdale, Huntersville (NC), Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Tokyo, Vancouver, Denmark and Cheltenham (UK). iPipeline was founded in 1995 and has annual revenues of about $70 million (www.ipipeline.com).
“We chose Golub Capital to lead the transaction because they have a deep expertise in the technology sector and they understand our strategy to grow the business. They provided us with a flexible, scalable and compelling solution in a short time frame that will enable us to execute on our plan,” said Brian Jaffee, Vice President at Thoma Bravo.
Golub offers buy-and-hold products ranging from $10 million to $75 million and includes one-loan financings, senior, 2nd lien and subordinated debt, preferred stock and co-investment equity. The firm underwrites and syndicates loans up to $500 million and will hold up to $300 million per transaction. Industries of interest include consumer products, business and consumer services, defense, manufacturing, value-added distribution, media, healthcare services and restaurants. Golub has offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco (www.golubcapital.com).
This is the fourth transaction Golub has financed for Thoma Bravo in the past 12 months. In February 2015, Golub provided a senior credit facility to support the firm’s acquisition of PowerPlan. Atlanta-based PowerPlan is a provider of accounting, tax, budgeting and analytics software for asset-intensive businesses that operate within the utility, oil and gas, transportation, and telecom industries.
“iPipeline has a strong reputation among software vendors in the life insurance industry. The company’s products have driven meaningful and measurable return-on-investment for its customers by automating historically manual processes,” said Spyro Alexopoulos, Managing Director at Golub Capital. “We are also thrilled to complete another transaction with Thoma Bravo, a firm that is uniquely positioned to add value to the company by drawing on its experience in the application software market.”
Thoma Bravo provides equity and strategic support to management teams building growing companies. The firm originated the concept of industry consolidation investing, which seeks to create value through the strategic use of acquisitions to accelerate business growth. Thoma Bravo currently manages approximately $8.5 billion of equity capital and is led by managing partners Orlando Bravo, Seth Boro, Scott Crabill, Lee Mitchell, Holden Spaht and Carl Thoma; and partner Robert Sayle. The firm was founded in 1981 and has offices in Chicago and San Francisco (www.thomabravo.com).
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 8-6-15
