The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world. The business provides freight, passenger and vehicle services between the Isle of Man and five ports in the UK and Ireland.
We bought senior debt in the company in 2012. We expected to earn an attractive return by simply holding the debt to maturity, as the business benefits from significant barriers to entry and strong cash generation. We worked with the company’s other lenders to put in place a management incentive scheme and to develop a new medium-term strategy. At the same time we explored the option to buy more debt to gain control. Ultimately though this was not achievable and we took the decision to sell.
We sold the investment in 2014 to a financial buyer.
