APX Alarm secures $565m in new financing, brings new lenders to market

PROVO, Utah—APX Alarm this week announced it had upped its debt financing by $125 million to a grand total of $565 million. In the process, it brought on two new lenders: Bank of America and, a new lender in the security space, Barclays Private Credit Partners (BPCP).

“BPCP finds the alarm monitoring space attractive given the contractual, predictable and recurring nature of the revenue stream, as well as the solid collateral coverage afforded secured lenders,” J. Brent Humphries, group head, BPCP told Security Systems News in an email interview.

The new facility is notable for its size. “In terms of bank facilities in the security space, this is the largest of its kind,” said Chris Black, APX CFO. “This is important for a number of reasons, including that it opens the door a bit for others [in the security space] to be able to procure financing.”

Black said APX is coming off its most successful summer season ever, with a projected 160,000 accounts sold in 2010. APX had 20 percent fewer sales teams than in 2009, so its sales-per-rep were up 20 percent this year over last year.

The new financing will enable APX to increase the number of teams it fields in 2011 and greatly increase the number of accounts it puts on next year. Black would not quantify goals for 2011 except to say that the number of teams and accounts will be “well north of what we did this summer.”

APX is currently right in the middle of recruiting reps for next summer.

The other lenders involved in the financing are: Canadian Pension, Regiment Capital, Davidson Kempner, Fortress Capital, Wells Fargo, PrivateBank, Zions Bank, Madison Capital, CIT, Shaw Capital.

BPCP was, until July 1, 2010, known as Barclays Structured Principal Investing. “We chose the name Barclays Private Credit Partners because it better reflects our expertise as a fixed income investor and our emphasis on new-issue opportunities,” Humphries said in an email. “The name further symbolizes our strength in providing flexible, private debt solutions to middle-market companies.”

Barclays Private Credit Partners Fund, L.P. launched in 2008 with $1 billion of limited partner commitments. As of October 1, 2010, BPCP has committed approximately $475 million in 15 investments and is actively seeking new opportunities, Humphries said.