Littlejohn & Co. has made an equity investment in Gulf Coast Shipyard Group, a manufacturer of ocean-going and inland marine vessels for commercial and military markets.
Gulf Coast Shipyard Group, parent of TY Offshore and Trinity Yachts, designs and constructs commercial vessels including oil field support vessels, tank barges, offshore barges, tugs, oil spill response and patrol vessels – as well as super yachts – in aluminum, steel and composite. Vessels range from 10 meters to 95 meters in length. The company is headquartered in Gulfport, MS with an additional facility in New Orleans, LA (www.TYOffshore.com) (www.trinityyachts.com).
“We look forward to our partnership with the Gulf Coast management team to continue the company’s strong growth trajectory into new markets. The company has a strong backlog of orders, and oil and gas drilling and production activity is expected to remain strong with demand for vessels serving this industry expected to continue, as well as vessels targeted for other commercial and military markets,” said Edmund Feeley, Managing Director of Littlejohn.
John Dane III, President and CEO, will continue to lead the company as he has for the past 13 years since taking Trinity Yachts private from Halter Marine in 2000. Felix Sabates Jr. will step down as Chairman to become an advisor and consultant to the new organization.
“Littlejohn has an impeccable reputation along with the ability to bring equity, strategy and experience in order to successfully grow our operations and market share,” said Mr. Dane. “I am also happy to announce that we will be starting a $9 million capital improvement program to the Gulfport yard which will increase our efficiency and annual output. These improvements will also upgrade our Syncrolift to 4,300 tons in anticipation of building ice class vessels for Arctic operations.”
Littlejohn & Co. makes control and non-control investments in middle-market companies that are undergoing a fundamental change in capital structure, strategy, operations or growth. The firm is currently investing from Littlejohn Fund IV which has over $1.3 billion in capital commitments. Littlejohn & Co. is based in Greenwich, CT (www.littlejohnllc.com).
© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 5-28-13
