Gulf Credit Partners, the credit and mezzanine fund of Gulf Capital, has successfully completed an investment of $20 million in Orion Group, a leading provider of facility management services solutions in Turkey.

Orion provides cleaning, catering, security and laundry services to leading corporate customers in medical, transportation, hospitality, and retail. The company was advised by Daruma Corporate Finance.

The investment is the second completed investment for the recently launched fund and the first in Turkey, a statement from the company said.

It represents a significant achievement for Gulf Capital and another important milestone in the development of the regional credit markets, where financing options for growing businesses remain limited, the statement said.

Orion is a full-fledged integrated services provider, capable of fulfilling a full suite of facilities management needs under long-term contracts for large scale customers and projects.

The capital invested will enable it to continue with its consolidation strategy, strengthen its leadership position in key sectors and round-out service offerings, it said.

Walid Cherif, co-head, Gulf Credit Partners, said: “This second transaction for the fund reaffirms our strategy of identifying and investing in medium-sized businesses with capable management teams and strong growth prospects.”

“Structured credit investments, including mezzanine finance, remain an attractive choice for growing companies unable to access the traditional bank funding markets and in need of flexible financing solutions. The investment in Orion is a testament to the high-quality investment opportunities that exist in our target markets.”

Yalcin Karaman, founder and chairman of Orion, said: "Gulf Capital has demonstrated a keen understanding of our business and shown considerable flexibility in providing acquisition finance, which provides the opportunity to execute our growth strategy.”

“Orion is well positioned to continue building our presence in the cleaning, security, industrial catering and industrial laundry business. At this stage of our firm’s development, the involvement of a well-known institutional investor will reaffirm our strategic values of transparency, governance and international best practices,” he said.

“This transaction is in line with our overall strategy to partner with promising companies and private equity firms in the Mena region and Turkey,” said Christopher Baines, co-head of Gulf Credit Partners. “The investment in Orion is particularly attractive as the business is well positioned to benefit from the continued growth of the Turkish economy and domestic trends towards increased outsourcing of business services”.

“The fund has had a very strong start in the first year of its operation. The two completed transactions have set promising benchmarks for the quality of investments and returns which we aim to deliver to our investors,” Baines concluded. – TradeArabia News Service