Archives for July 22, 2014

North Castle to Sell Ignite to Newell Rubbermaid

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North Castle Partners has entered into an agreement to sell Ignite USA, a developer and marketer of thermal mugs, to Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) for a purchase price of $308 million.  North Castle invested in Ignite in March 2013.  The sale of Ignite USA represents its first sale of a portfolio company from North Castle’s recently closed fifth fund.

“We are proud of our successful partnership with CEO Sami El-Saden and the entire Ignite management team. As a focused fund, North Castle identifies high-growth, niche segments within larger industries, and partners with extraordinary management teams to build great companies,” said Chip Baird, Founder and Managing Director of North Castle.  “We believe that Ignite, as part of the Newell Rubbermaid family of brands, is well positioned to be a global leader in two of the fastest growing segments of the housewares industry.”

Ignite USA is a developer and marketer of reusable, environmentally friendly thermal mugs and hydration bottles primarily sold under the Contigo and Avex brands. The company is expected to have annual sales in 2014 of approximately $125 million.  Ignite sells its products in over 50 countries through the club, mass, sporting goods, specialty, and direct-to-consumer channels.  The company is headquartered in Chicago (www.gocontigo.com) (www.avexsport.com).

North Castle makes control investments in consumer-driven product and service companies located in North America with enterprise values ranging from $50 million to $500 million. Sectors of interest include: beauty & personal care; consumer health; fitness, recreation & sports; home & leisure; and nutrition. North Castle is headquartered in Greenwich, CT (www.northcastlepartners.com).

“North Castle’s mission is to partner with accomplished entrepreneurial management teams to build great companies that provide high quality, innovative products, which promote healthy and sustainable living,” said Alison Minter, a North Castle Managing Director. “In partnership with Sami El-Saden, Ignite’s CEO, we accelerated the company’s growth by leveraging our experience with innovation-driven product businesses, such as Cascade Sports and Octane Fitness, as well as companies with mass market distribution and channel expansion experience, including Atkins Nutritional, Enzymatic Therapy, Flatout Flatbread, Leiner Health Products, and Avalon Natural Brands.”

“We are always interested in new opportunities across the Healthy, Active and Sustainable Living markets to leverage our knowledge, network and experience in building market leaders like Ignite,” said Ms. Minter.

Morrison Cohen represented North Castle Partners and Ignite in the transaction.

2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 7-22-14

Harbour Acquires Holman Boiler and Affiliated Power

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Cleaver-Brooks, a portfolio company of the Harbour Group, has acquired Holman Boiler Works and Affiliated Power Services.  Both companies are Texas-based boiler sales and service providers.

“These are two outstanding companies.” said Jeff Fox, Chairman and CEO of Harbour Group. “The sales, service, rental, design and fabrication they deliver leads the industry in their markets. The combination with Cleaver-Brooks, which provides the broadest and best performing energy-efficient, low-emission boiler room solutions in the industry, will further improve their already exceptional customer service.”

Holman Boiler Works is a boiler services provider to commercial and industrial customers. The company provides boiler repair and field service, the rental of mobile steam plants and boilers, rebuilding of boilers for rent, lease or sale, and the sale of new boiler and auxiliary equipment. Holman Boiler was founded in 1947 and is based in Dallas with 12 regional offices in six states (www.holmanboiler.com).

Affiliated Power Services (APS) provides repair and maintenance services for industrial and commercial boilers and marine vessels.  In addition to its core service offerings, the company also sells and rents boilers to power, refining, and petrochemical companies, as well as operators of large hotels, hospitals, food processing plants, and other commercial facilities throughout the southwestern United States.  Affiliated Power Services is based near Dallas in Lancaster, TX (www.apowerserv.com).

Cleaver-Brooks, acquired by Harbour Group in December 2012, is a designer and manufacturer of fully-integrated proprietary boiler room systems. The company’s boilers, burners, controls, components and accessories are engineered to work together to provide peak energy and efficiency. The company is based north of Tallahassee in Thomasville, GA. The company has nine other facilities, in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Texas, Mexico, Canada, and China (www.cleaver-brooks.com).

“Holman is a leader in providing customer-focused solutions in the boiler sales and service industry throughout the Gulf Coast and the Midwest,” said Cleaver-Brooks’ President and CEO Welch Goggins.  “The addition of Holman as well as APS, which has an outstanding reputation in the refining, petrochem, and commercial boiler industry throughout Texas, will enable Cleaver-Brooks to further strengthen our relationships with our customers and better understand and anticipate their needs.  We look forward to supporting the management teams and employees from both of these fine organizations to ensure that they continue to excel in boiler room sales and service.”

Harbour Group and its companies are engaged in manufacturing, distribution, and specialty services in multiple industries, including specialty LED systems, niche distribution, logistics services, decorative kitchen and bath hardware, automotive enthusiast products, abrasives, diamond-cutting products and related tools, entertainment and music products, and auxiliary plastic processing equipment. Since its founding in 1976, Harbour Group has acquired 175 companies in 37 different industries. The company is based in St. Louis (www.harbourgroup.com).

2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 7-22-14

Pamlico Invests in DayNine Consulting

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Pamlico Capital has made an investment in DayNine Consulting, a provider of Cloud services used for human resources applications.  DayNine’s management and employees will retain majority ownership of the company and a representative of Pamlico will join the DayNine Board of Directors.

DayNine Consulting is a Workday (NYSE: WDAY) services partner.  DayNine deploys and optimizes Workday’s cloud-based applications including Human Capital Management, Workday Payroll, Workday Financial Management, and Workday Recruiting.  DayNine has offices in seven North American and European cities and customer engagements in 83 countries (www.daynine.com).

The new investment from Pamlico will support an expansion strategy and to further develop proprietary tools that differentiate DayNine’s capabilities in the Workday ecosystem.

“Our focus on investing in software services businesses that support the accelerating adoption of leading Cloud solutions led us to DayNine,” said Pamlico Partner Scott Stevens.  “We are extremely impressed by the caliber of DayNine’s leadership, the deep domain expertise and breadth of services offered by its consultants, the company’s remarkable record of customer satisfaction, and its strong position in the attractive Workday ecosystem.”

Pamlico Capital invests from $25 million to $100 million in companies with total enterprise values of between $50 million and $250 million. Sectors of interest include business and technology services, communications, and healthcare. Pamlico Capital was founded in 1988 and is based in Charlotte, NC (www.pamlicocapital.com).

“We chose to partner with Pamlico because of their successful track record with business and technology services investments, as well as their interest and expertise in Cloud solutions,” said Tim Ramos, co-founder and CEO of DayNine. “Since our 2009 founding, DayNine has been growing at an 86% compounded annual growth rate. Pamlico’s investment provides DayNine strong financial and advisory resources with which to build upon our significant presence in the Workday ecosystem. Their investment will enable us to boost an already robust global growth rate.”

DayNine was advised by Clearsight Advisors, an investment banking firm based in McLean, VA (www.clearsightadvisors.com).

2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 7-22-14

Consonance Capital Partners Closes On $500 Million Healthcare Fund

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Consonance Capital Partners (CCP), the private equity arm of Consonance Capital, has held a final closing of a new $500 million healthcare private equity fund. The fund was oversubscribed, surpassing its $350 million target and reached its hard cap of $500 million.

“We are pleased to announce the final closing of our first private equity fund at a level that exceeded our target,” said Dr. Mitchell Blutt, CEO of Consonance Capital. “We continue to extend our leading franchise within the healthcare investment community. This platform enables us to build on our practice of bringing to bear our industry expertise and resources to help management teams and businesses realize their full growth potential.”

CCP’s founders, Mitchell Blutt, MD, Benjamin Edmands, Stephen McKenna, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, have over 65 years of combined experience in private equity investing, primarily within healthcare. The four partners have work together for over a decade at JPMorgan Partners and other firms.  The new fund is associated with Consonance Capital Management, a healthcare-focused public equity manager with approximately $600 million of assets under management. Both Consonance Capital Partners and Consonance Capital Management are controlled by Consonance Capital.

“We have successfully attracted a highly diversified collection of pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, family offices and other high net worth platforms and individuals principally from the United States and Europe, who recognize our ability to successfully source investments, assess opportunities, and invest in the lower middle market of healthcare,” said Mr. Edmands, CCP Co-founder and Managing Partner.

Mr. McKenna, CCP Co-founder and Managing Partner added, “We have a strong investment team and a premier group of advisors with a deep experience and understanding of the healthcare marketplace. This team has already made several investments in businesses with high growth prospects.”

In March 2014, CCP completed the recapitalization of Enclara Health, a hospice-focused pharmacy services provider based near Philadelphia in West Deptford, NJ (www.enclarahealth.com); and in May 2014, CCP completed the acquisition of KEPRO, a medical management and cost containment services provider based in Harrisburg, PA (www.kepro.com).

CCP invests in private companies in the lower middle market of the US healthcare industry that generally have between $20 million and $150 million in revenues.

“This is a period of dynamic change in the healthcare industry with significant opportunities to invest in companies that can improve the quality of service, transform the care experience and create a more efficient and effective healthcare sector,” said Ms. DeParle, CCP Co-founder and Partner and former Deputy Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama.  “We believe that our fund is ideally suited and sized to help lead this change through our investments, insights, expertise and support. We will continue our strategy of sourcing partnerships and investments with companies that are capitalizing on new healthcare niches.”

Consonance Capital is a healthcare investment firm that invests across the healthcare sector.  Private investments, which include growth equity, leveraged buyouts, and recapitalizations, are made under the direction of Consonance Capital Partners.  Public investments are made under the direction of Consonance Capital Management, a long and short public equity manager. Consonance Capital was founded in 2005 and is based in New York (www.consonancecapital.com).

Monument Group served as placement agent and Latham & Watkins provided fund formation counsel.

2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 7-22-14

Advisory Firm SierraConstellation Adds New Senior Director

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SierraConstellation Partners (SCP), an interim management and advisory firm to middle-market companies, has added Jeff Nerland to its team as a new senior director.  Mr. Nerland is based in Los Angeles and reports to Lawrence Perkins, founder and CEO, and Winston Mar, managing director.

“I have known Jeff for many years and am confident that his deep expertise in the retail and restaurant industries will serve SCP and our clients well,” said Mr. Mar. “Jeff’s addition is a big win for our team, and we couldn’t be happier to have him join SierraConstellation.”

With more than 30 years of experience, Mr. Nerland has conducted operational and financial restructurings in a variety of industries, including retail, restaurants, aerospace, contracting, distribution, transportation, manufacturing, and real estate. He has also held various senior executive roles on an interim basis, including chief restructuring officer, CEO and CFO for companies such as Hancock Fabrics, Coast Crane, Atlantis Seafood and Daphne’s Greek Café. He also served as group president of DeCrane Aircraft, where he completed 10 acquisitions to form a provider of cabin interior products for the corporate aircraft industry.

“I’m happy that I can put my restructuring experience to work at a growing, collaborative and results-oriented firm like SCP,” said Mr. Nerland. “The middle market is ripe with opportunity and challenges for businesses, and I look forward to helping our clients find creative ways to prosper and grow.”

SierraConstellation Partners is an advisory firm serving middle-market companies.  Clients include companies, management teams, their private equity investors, lenders, creditors, and other financial constituents. The firm has four main service lines: interim management, advisory services, strategic investment advisory services, and direct capital investments. SierraConstellation also partners with select investors to serve as management teams for potential acquisitions and portfolio companies. The firm is based in Los Angeles (www.sierraconstellation.com).

2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 7-22-14