International Alternative Asset Management

Travers Smith advised Triple Point on the origination of a senior revolving credit facility to Plend, an FCA-authorised consumer lender focused on providing responsible, affordable credit to borrowers underserved by traditional high-street lenders.

Travers Smith has advised long-standing client, Volex plc, the specialist integrated manufacturer of critical power and data transmission products, on its move from AIM to the Equity Shares (Commercial Companies) Category of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.

Travers Smith has advised Bridgepoint Credit on the financing arrangements in relation to the acquisition of AirStart Inc. by Sentry Aerospares, a portfolio company of Acorn Capital Management.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry 

Welcome to Frontline by Travers Smith – our series addressing the key issues affecting the defence sector. 

Every firm carrying out payment, e-money or banking services in the UK should pay close attention to the consultation paper titled Modernising Payment Services Regulation (the CP), published by His Majesty's Treasury (HMT) on 14 July 2026. While Bastille Day may not have been a deliberate choice of publication date (and we are not cynical enough to suggest that there is a pre-summer holiday race to publish taking place among policymakers), it is suitably appropriate, as this paper may herald a genuine revolution in the regulation of payments in the UK.

The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill was published in January 2026 and has been controversial from the start. One of its key aims is to cap ground rents in existing long residential leases at £250 a year from an implementation date in late 2028, reducing in 2068 to a peppercorn.  This follows from a previous consultation under the last Conservative government in 2023/24 which weighed up five different options for tackling excessive ground rents.

On 4 June this year, HMRC quietly updated its published guidance in relation to input tax recovery for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. These changes to HMRC's internal VAT Input Tax Manual clarify an improved position for the way in which input tax on asset management costs can be recovered, but appear to make recovery of input tax on administration costs more difficult.