Library metadata specialist secures £1.1m funding from Santander
Dumfries-based Bibliographic Data Services, the UK’s leading provider of vital metadata to the library, publishing, and home entertainment sectors, has secured £1.1m of funding from Santander UK to support the business with a share buy-back from a legacy minority shareholder.
The company, founded in 1995 by the incumbent management team and based in Dumfries, secured the transaction in just five weeks, with Santander UK completing the deal virtually and electronically at the height of the pandemic in around five weeks.
BDS service the entire UK public library market of 197 public library authorities (inc. consortia) in addition to select academic libraries, retail sellers and digital providers including Amazon and Universal. BDS grew its business into the complementary sectors of home entertainment information, web building hosting and maintenance, and design services to offer a complete content, platform and design service.
Lesley Whyte, managing director for Bibliographic Data Services Limited (BDS): “We needed to raise finance to re-structure the shareholding of our business, and engaged BDO to advise us. Working closely with them, we chose Santander to be our next Banking partner. The Santander team, led by Richard Mathison, took great care to understand the business objectives and ensured the whole process was straightforward and handled within a tight timescale. We are pleased to move forward with Santander as our future banking partner.
Richard Mathison, director Structured Finance, Santander UK: “BDS is an exceptional business and we are delighted to support the whole BDS team with the next phase of their growth journey. This transaction was conducted exclusively by virtual means and demonstrates our ability to support SME businesses in the current economic environment.”
Santander UK is hosting a series of free ‘Survive and Revive’ webinars for SMEs on how to bolster their business proposition. Covering a range of topics – from innovating effectively to aligning purpose and culture – our experts delve into some of the ways in which businesses have adjusted, and thrived, since the outbreak of coronavirus. The webinars and list of other helpful resources can be found here: www.santanderbreakthrough.co.uk/coronavirus.