Prospect Capital Corporation has provided $23.2 million of secured debt financing for the recapitalization of Taco Bueno, a portfolio company of Palladium Equity Partners. The purpose of the recapitalization was for the repayment of existing debt and to provide a dividend to existing shareholders.
“We are impressed with CEO Ed Lambert and the rest of Taco Bueno’s management team, along with the company’s ability to successfully perform over a 45 year history,” said Richard Carratu, a Managing Director of Prospect Capital Management. “The recapitalization of Taco Bueno demonstrates Prospect’s ability to provide real value to financial sponsors, while generating a compelling yield for our shareholders.”
Taco Bueno operates as a quick service restaurant chain offering fast, casual, and quality Mexican cuisine. Taco Bueno operates 155 company-owned and 20 franchised locations across the Southwestern region of the US. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Farmers Branch, TX (www.tacobueno.com).
“We continue to be pleased with our financial results, and we are very excited about Taco Bueno’s potential in the years to come,” said Edward Lambert, CEO of Taco Bueno. “We are leveraging the strength of our brand and geographic positioning to capitalize on a number of important growth opportunities, including store growth within our core markets, new territory development, and the extension of menu offerings.”
Prospect invests from $10 million to $75 million in private and micro-cap public businesses located in the US and Canada that have from $3 million to $30 million of EBITDA. Investment structures include: senior debt; unitranche debt; 2nd lien and mezzanine debt; and “one stop” debt and equity. The firm invests in wide array of industries and is effectively industry agnostic. The firm is located in New York (www.prospectstreet.com).
Palladium Equity Partners targets investments in business services companies as well as in financial services, consumer/retail, food/restaurants, healthcare, industrial and media businesses. Palladium has a focus on companies that operate in the US Hispanic market. The principals of Palladium have invested over $1.5 billion of equity in 50 portfolio companies over the last two decades. The firm was founded in 1997 and is based in New York (www.palladiumequity.com).
© 2012 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 12-20-12