EU Business News Q3 2018

EU BUSINESS NEWS / Q3 2018 5 NEWS , Barings, one of the world’s leading financial services firms, announced it served as lead agent and sole lender on a senior secured credit facility to support London-based Duke Street’s investment in Great Rail Journeys. In addition to the initial term loan extended by Barings, the credit agreement also includes an accordion facility allowing the borrower to tap additional capital as needed. Established in 1974 and headquartered in York, England, Great Rail Journeys is the world’s leading provider of escorted rail holidays, catering primarily to a growing demographic of 55-plus travellers with nearly 400 tours offered across destinations in the U.K. and Ireland, Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa. The company booked vacation tours for more than 50,000 travellers last year. “Duke Street is pleased to have the support of Barings’ global private finance team on our investment in Great Rail Journeys,” said Paul Adams, investment director at Duke Street. “Barings’ understanding of Great Rail’s business model and its ability to fund the entire credit facility helped expedite the process and provide certainty of closing in a timely manner.” “Barings appreciates the opportunity to partner with Duke Street on its investment in Great Rail Journeys and we look forward to additional opportunities to work together in the near future,” said Matt Carty, director at Barings. “We are excited about Great Rail’s prospects for continued growth globally and believe Duke Street’s deep leisure sector experience will help the company execute on the expansion of its rail tour business in promising source markets like the U.S. and the launch of its unique rail-based river cruise offering.” Sugarmade, Inc. (SGMD), one of the largest publicly traded hydroponics supply companies, announced on the 17th August 2018 the expansion into the European market for hydroponics sup- plies by way of its first order via Amazon UK. Under the terms of the agreement, Sugarmade will supply dozens of SKUs to be sold in United Kingdom. The European market is growing relative to hydroponics. U.S.- based importers and marketers have developed strong product lines at very attractive prices, based on worldwide sourcing. The quality of these products and rea- sonable price points have started to attract European cultivators who have not been able to source similar products at attractive pric- es within the European markets. This inability to source quality products at attractive price points creates a significant opportunity for suppliers such as Sugarmade. Over the past few financial quar- ters, Sugarmade has seen reve- nue growth patterns expand geo- graphically. Whereas as recently as mid-2017, the majority of hydro- ponic-related revenue growth was seen from the California and other west coast marketplaces, growth is becoming more geographically dispersed among U.S. states were legalisation has eased restriction. This movement into United King- dom further expands the base of geographic growth areas. “We continue to grow in terms of top line revenue and in geographic scope,” commented Jimmy Chan, CEO of Sugarma- de. “While we have previously informed our investors of our $30 million revenue goal for next year, revenues continue to grow across the board. The lack of available products within the Eu- ropean markets provides Sugar- made additional revenue growth opportunities. We view this as a potential growth market for Sug- armade especially considering there are more than 740 million people in Europe compared to only about 360 million in the U.S. We believe even a few points of market share of this huge market will have a very positive effect on our growth rate.” Barings Supports Duke Street’s Investment in Great Rail Journeys Senior secured credit facility will fuel growth of global leader in packaged rail tours.