STALWART GROUP

Stalwart Group has a UK market leader in the development of financial products for those in retirement. Its core product was a reversionary property annuity scheme which enabled "income poor/asset rich" elderly home owners to purchase an annuity with their residential property whilst maintaining a leasehold life interest. Demographic trends pointed to strong market growth in this sector despite difficult regulatory market conditions, brought about by poor selling of inappropriate "equity release" products by other providers. Prior to our investment, Stalwart had an excellent reputation, a leading market share and was available at an attractive price, but had problems with its funding structure.