Ankura buys sovereign debt advisor Newstate Partners

London-based sovereign debt expert Newstate Partners has been snapped up by Ankura Consulting Group. The deal occurs for an undisclosed fee, and comes as restructuring work relating to government debts around the world is on the rise.

Global expert services and advisory firm Ankura Consulting Group works with clients to deliver transformation solutions across multiple functions. Headquartered in Moorgate in the UK, the firm has a global team of over 1,800 professionals in more than 35 international locations, offering collaborative lateral thinking and multidisciplinary capabilities to help companies of all shapes and sizes improve their results.

As Ankura looks to expand its offering, it has acquired sovereign debt advisory firm, Newstate Partners. Based in London, Newstate is an advisor to governments, public sector institutions, and creditors on public finance-related issues including debt restructuring and asset and liability management.

“Newstate Partners is a market-leading firm with an outstanding reputation for delivering results,” said Kevin Lavin, Chief Executive Officer of Ankura. “Its expertise and experience advising governments, central banks, and state-owned clients is second to none and a great complement to our government advisory services.”

The sovereign debt of a government is the sum of all the deficit flow variables. Since the financial crisis of 2008, sovereign debt has become a continued talking point, after many states decided to bail out their collapsing financial services sectors. As governments look to make paying debt service to these commitments more manageable, restructuring moves such as adding grace periods, reducing the principal amount of the debt, reducing the interest rate, and debt service suspension have become more and more common.

Since its launch in 2009, this has positioned Newstate to fast become a globally respected name in the sovereign debt expertise industry. It has advised more than 30 governments and been retained by parties-at-interest in around 50% of the external sovereign bond restructurings undertaken over the past 14 years. This includes many of the currently active or very recently concluded sovereign debt restructurings, such as those in Sri Lanka, Zambia, Suriname and Chad.

“Sovereign debt expertise is in high demand and Newstate is the right partner at the right time. They are a world-class team of professionals committed to excellence. Together, we will grow our global footprint and expand our breadth of expertise and services,” added Simon Michaels, Chairman of Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific at Ankura.

The purchase of Newstate bolsters Ankura’s capabilities to support governments with a broad range of solutions. The partnership will result in more projects – and has already bolstered a financial, restructuring advisory project for the Government of Puerto Rico. The deal will also open up new markets for Newstate, as part of a larger firm.

Spencer Jones, Managing Partner at Newstate, explained, “We are excited to be a part of Ankura, because of its incredible suite of complementary advisory services. Debt restructuring is only one facet of a spectrum of challenges facing sovereign nations. With Ankura, we will enhance our capabilities as sovereign debt advisors and deliver comprehensive solutions to clients managing complex challenges, now and in the future.”

The move comes as Ankura continues to expand its global offering. In November 2022, this also saw the consultancy launch a new cybersecurity solutions service, designed to provide middle-market organisations with threat detection and real-time response assistance, as they look to fight off cyber threats. Meanwhile, in October, it also unveiled a sports advisory practice – working to help sporting organisations manage political, reputational and financial risks.