Follow-on Investment into existing royalty partner

Duke Royalty, a provider of alternative capital solutions to a diversified range of profitable and long-established businesses in Europe and abroad, is pleased to announce a follow-on investment of £4.5 million into its existing royalty partner United Glass Group Limited (“UGG”), a UK based group with established subsidiaries operating in the UK architectural glass processing & merchanting sectors since the 1970s.

Highlights:

• The funds will be used by UGG to complete the strategic acquisition of London Architectural Glass (“LAG”), a UK supplier of bespoke architectural glass to premium residential, educational and heritage projects throughout the UK
• The investment is expected to be immediately accretive to Duke’s earnings and based on the increased total investment of £12.0 million into UGG, Duke will be entitled to higher distributions of approximately £1.7 million per annum, beginning in March 2021, which represents a pro forma cash yield of approximately 14.1%
• LAG represents the fourth acquisition by UGG and will provide UGG with significant potential cross selling synergies within the group
• Founded in 2013, LAG is a long-standing profitable company that provides significant diversification benefits to UGG’s existing residential and commercial glass offering
• Duke’s investment has been financed via the Company’s existing revolving credit facility with Honeycomb Investment Trust
• Duke retains a 30% equity interest in UGG further aligning Duke with the future upside potential of the group
• Duke also retains the right, but not the obligation, to provide additional senior secured funding to UGG and remains supportive of UGG’s strategy to diversify through accretive acquisitions

Neil Johnson, CEO of Duke Royalty, said:

“A core part of Duke’s strategy is to support M&A opportunities for our existing royalty partners in the current climate. We are delighted to support Mark and UGG in their disciplined approach to growth and synergies through acquisition. LAG is a mature, profitable business which provides strong diversification benefits and cross selling opportunities to UGG as well as additional scale.

“This investment is in line with our strategy to deliver additional diversification to our portfolio and achieve increased cash revenues to support our quarterly dividend. Based on Duke’s pro forma exposure of £12.0 million, UGG has become one of Duke’s core royalty partners and I look forward to seeing their continued development and growth in the future. Duke continues to evaluate further opportunities and has additional capital available through the undrawn portion of our revolving credit facility.”

Mark Harrison, CEO of UGG, said:

“Duke’s long term capital has allowed UGG to execute on its UK buy and build strategy and I am very appreciative of the support that Duke provided UGG during the recent challenging COVID environment. LAG represents UGG’s fourth acquisition and I am delighted to be able to bring such a well-managed and successful business inside the UGG group.”

Duke Royalty Portfolio

A full list of Duke’s current Royalty Partners are now included for reference on our Partners page of our website: www.dukeroyalty.com/partners

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