Morgan Joseph TriArtisan Places New Senior Financing for Versa’s Civitas Media
Search

Morgan Joseph TriArtisan Places New Senior Financing for Versa’s Civitas Media

The Financial Restructuring Investment Banking Group of Morgan Joseph TriArtisan has completed the placement of $62.5 million in senior credit facilities for Civitas Media, a portfolio company of Versa Capital Management.  The $62.5 million multi-bank senior term loan and revolving credit facility is led by RBS Citizens.

“With this transaction, Civitas has the financial strength to focus on opportunities for its editorial and advertising professionals to serve their local communities,” said James (“Jim”) Decker, Head of Morgan Joseph’s Financial Restructuring Group. “The new company is now well positioned for growth.” In addition to Mr. Decker, the Morgan Joseph team members involved in implementing the transaction included Jay Jacquin and Alex Fisch, Directors, and James Hadfield, Vice President.

Morgan Joseph TriArtisan is an investment and merchant bank engaged in providing financial advice, capital raising and private equity investing. The firm’s services include mergers, acquisitions and restructuring advice, in addition to private placements and public offerings of equity and debt. Morgan Joseph TriArtisan is based in New York (www.mjta.com).

Versa Capital Management formed Civitas Media in September 2012 to consolidate the four community news media entities owned by Versa:  Freedom Central, four daily newspapers in Illinois, Ohio and Missouri; Heartland Publications, 17 daily and 29 weekly papers across Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia; Ohio Community Media, with 13 daily and 30 weekly publications across the state of Ohio; and Impressions Media, which operates the Wilkes Barre Times Leader and other local publications in the northeastern Pennsylvania area.  Civitas Media employs 1,650 people at 99 locations across 12 states in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and South.

Versa Capital Management invests in special situations involving middle market companies with revenues in the $100 million to $1 billion range or assets of $25 million to $500 million. The firm has $1.2 billion of capital under management and is based in Philadelphia (www.versa.com).

“We have assembled an excellent group of community news publishers over the past 15 months and combining them together under the Civitas umbrella is a logical and value-enhancing result,” said Versa’s CEO, Gregory Segall. “Community-based media has remained profitable and largely avoided the level of financial pressure experienced by large daily metros in recent years. They are the principal source of information and news content as well as the primary advertising vehicles for their communities, whether in print or online, and we see a more stable and resilient future for this sector.”

© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 2-12-13

To search in site, type your keyword and hit enter