Prospect Capital has provided $260 million of floating-rate, senior-secured financing to support the acquisition of Ash City Worldwide by alphabroder, a portfolio company of Littlejohn & Co.
“We are delighted to support alphabroder again by providing additional capital for the acquisition of Ash City, creating the leading North American seamless-source supplier to the promotional and corporate apparel industry,” said Richard Carratu, a Managing Director of Prospect Capital Management.
Prospect invests 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 an array of industries and is effectively industry agnostic. Prospect Capital is headquartered in New York (www.prospectstreet.com).
“Prospect’s ability to fully underwrite the entire $260 million financing need on an expedited basis was critical to the success of the transaction, which further enhances the scale and diversity of alphabroder,” said David Simon, a Managing Director of Littlejohn.
Ash City is alphabroder’s second acquisition (the company’s first add-on was Imprints Wholesale in February 2013) since Littlejohn & Co. acquired the company in late 2012. At that time the company was called Broder Bros. In January 2014, Littlejohn & Co. rebranded the company as alphabroder.
alphabroder is a distributor of imprintable sportswear and accessories. The company sources undecorated T-shirts and imprintable sportswear and distributes them to apparel screen printers who decorate them for a wide variety of purposes. alphabroder offers more than 40 brands including a selection of trade brands from Gildan, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Jerzees and Bella + Canvas to an assortment of retail brands including Adidas Golf, Ashworth, Champion, Russell Athletic, alternative and Dickies. With the addition of Ash City, alphabroder also offers private label brands including Ash City, North End, Core 365, Devon & Jones, Chestnut Hill, and Harriton. alphabroder operates eight distribution facilities and ten “express” facilities offering pickup services to customers. The company was founded in 1919 and is based in Trevose, PA (www.broderbros.com).
© 2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 1-10-14