SMG Holdings, a venue management company and a portfolio company of American Capital, has acquired Premier Food Services, a provider of outsourced food and beverage services.
“As a global venue management company, SMG manages a large and broad portfolio of venues with exceptional diversity across event type, end market, attendee population demographic and geography,” said Brian Graff, Senior Managing Director. “Its acquisition of Premier provides SMG with an attractive opportunity to expand its food service offering outside of its core portfolio of arenas, stadiums and convention centers into business dining, schools and colleges, fairgrounds and off-premise catering.”
Premier Food Services is a provider of outsourced food and beverage services at entertainment venues, dining clubs, universities and businesses. Its customers range from the State of California to higher education clients and aerospace and technology firms. Premier’s services include dining center and restaurant management, alcoholic beverage and food concessions, meeting facility management and special events management. The company was founded in 1985 and is based in San Diego (www.premierfoodservices.com).
SMG, acquired by American Capital in June 2007, is a venue management company providing private management services to owners of public assembly facilities. SMG provides construction and design consulting, pre-opening services, venue management, sales, marketing, event booking and programming. SMG currently manages over 230 venues, including arenas, stadiums, convention centers, exhibition halls, science centers, trade centers, theaters and performing arts centers. SMG’s facilities include stadiums such as the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints, and Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears; convention centers McCormick Place in Chicago and Moscone Center in San Francisco; and the UK based Manchester Arena, the world’s third largest arena. SMG also offers food and beverage operations through its concessions, catering and special events division, SAVOR. The company was founded in 1977 and is based in the Philadelphia suburb of West Conshohocken (www.smgworld.com).
“Premier is a perfect fit for our California SAVOR food business which includes the Long Beach Convention Center, The Aquarium of the Pacific, the Long Beach Grand Prix, the Moscone Center, the Ontario Convention Center and Fresno State University. This acquisition will also provide a base of business to further expand SMG’s SAVOR brand nationally,” said Wes Westley, SMG President and CEO.
American Securities invests in businesses with $500 million to $2 billion of revenues. Investments are undertaken with conservative financial structures that typically include only equity and senior debt. The firm aims to invest $150 million to $500 million of equity capital in each portfolio company. Sectors of interest include industrial manufacturing, specialty chemicals, aerospace and defense, energy, business services, healthcare, media, restaurants, and consumer products. The firm has more than $10 billion of capital under management and is currently investing from its sixth fund. American Securities has offices in New York and Shanghai (www.american-securities.com).
2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 6-4-14
