The Group already owns and operates Robin's Nest Nursery in Hastings and Bear's House Nurseries in St Leonards and Hastings, offering places for over 190 children. The Group was keen to expand further in the South East and identified Acorns Day Nursery in Sevenoaks and Strawberry Hill Nursery in Brighton as perfect additions.

To facilitate the purchase of the businesses the Group Director and Operations Director had initially approached their own bank but was disappointed with their response. Therefore, they took some specialist advice from Chris Field, Director at Christie Finance Corporate, who suggested a group refinance in order to facilitate the acquisitions. The right lender was swiftly identified and at some very commercial terms, with the debt priced sub 3%.

With valuable specialist sector knowledge and experience, Chris was able to identify the lender and structure a solution with some fantastic funding terms. He comments on the deal, "I managed to refinance the existing portfolio in order to fund 100% of the two new purchases, which the clients didn’t believe was possible. I am delighted to help this Group grow further and get the deal completed quickly, so they can concentrate on further expansion plans."

Group Director, Chris Copping said of the deal, “As a small growing nursery group we needed expansion capital and so we spoke to number of banks directly. A complete waste of time and disappointing that even our current bankers couldn’t help.

Chris Field from Christie Finance Corporate offered to arrange very competitive debt finance and as I have had great experience with Chris in the past, we again put our trust in him. Within just a few days, he had some very good terms issued from a lender that clearly understands the sector, which far exceeded expectations. What is very significant is that Chris always drives the deal, right until the completion. Many agents and brokers “drop out” after their fee has been paid! We will use Chris again and again and as our first port of call. "