ECI Partners has invested in UK provider of professional pensions trusteeship and governance services Independent Governance Group (IGG).
The investment represents an initial exit for LDC, with revenues and headcount increasing by over 300% during the partnership. LDC has also reinvested alongside ECI to support the continued growth of the business.
IGG was set up in February 2023 after Ross Trustees and Independent Trustee Services merged, creating a singular destination for best-in-class professional pensions trusteeship, scheme secretarial, pensions managerial and governance services.
LDC first invested in Ross Trustees in November 2020, before backing the creation of IGG.
During the partnership, LDC supported CEO Andrew Bradshaw and the wider management team to deliver strong organic and acquisitive growth.
This included significant investment in people and technology, in addition to supporting five complementary acquisitions that further strengthened IGG’s service offering to clients.
IGG now employs more than 200 people and the business provides professional services to 386 pension schemes with total scheme assets of £324bn (€388.5bn).
Over the last 18 months, IGG has established a strong regional presence in Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester alongside its London headquarters. In the process, it has added pensions and employee benefits communications and investment governance expertise to its core services, delivered under the Like Minds and IC Select brands respectively.
IGG has also invested in significant product and service innovation to help trustee boards fulfil their responsibilities to scheme sponsors and members. This includes the launch of IGGiQ, a proprietary SaaS platform that provides holistic, real-time analysis of a scheme’s investment performance, and the introduction of IGGnite, its consolidated governance model for small pension schemes.
Andrew Bradshaw, CEO of IGG, said: “IGG has rapidly grown into one of the leading providers of trusteeship and governance services in the UK. This is due to the hard work of our skilled and diverse team, which ensures pension schemes of all shapes and sizes look to IGG to deliver the knowledge, experience and perspectives essential for strong governance. Thank you to LDC who have supported us on our journey so far, enabling us to strengthen our market position and achieve key strategic goals.”
Bradshaw added that with ECI on board, alongside the continued support of LDC, IGG is well-positioned to pursue “our plans for growth, deliver innovative solutions to meet our clients’ evolving needs and, importantly, create new career opportunities for our talent”.
Michael Butler, partner at ECI, added: “We were attracted by IGG’s fantastic track record of delivering award-winning pension services with excellent client retention, delivered by a highly skilled team. We’re looking forward to working with the IGG team on the next stage of the company’s growth, building on its phenomenal achievements so far.”
He added that IGG provides a “strong” organic opportunity due to growing demand for trustee and governance services as the pension regulatory environment continues to grow in complexity.
Butler also anticipates acquisitions to further boost growth.
Chris Handy, partner at LDC, added that over the last four years Bradshaw and the management team at IGG have delivered “transformational growth and created a market leader in the pensions industry”.
He said: “We’ve had the privilege of supporting their growth journey and the success they have achieved is testament to the ambition and capability of their entire team. We’re looking forward to continuing our support for the business.”
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