GE Antares is serving as administrative agent on a senior secured credit facility to support the recent acquisition of The Cook & Boardman Group by Ridgemont Equity Partners. GE Capital Markets is the sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner on this facility.
The Cook & Boardman Group is a specialty distributor of commercial metal and wood doors, door frames, door hardware, and related products, including access control devices and specialty products. The company serves the non-residential construction market, including the education, municipal, healthcare, commercial, office, multi-family, and hospitality sectors. Cook & Boardman was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC. The company operates twenty locations across eight states (www.cookandboardman.com).
“We’re pleased to provide debt financing to Ridgemont in support of the Cook & Boardman acquisition,” said Dave Swanson, managing director of GE Antares. “There are many promising growth opportunities at Cook & Boardman, and we look forward to supporting Ridgemont and management as the company executes on their strategic mission.”
GE Antares is a unit of GE Capital with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Specializing in the middle market, GE Antares is a “one-stop” source for GE’s lending and other services to middle market private equity sponsors (www.geantares.com).
“Ridgemont is very optimistic about Cook & Boardman’s growth opportunities in the non-residential construction sector. GE Antares was the right choice to lead this acquisition due to their certainty of execution and knowledge and experience in the construction industry,” said Rob Edwards, partner at Ridgemont.
Ridgemont Equity Partners (formerly Banc of America Capital Investors) focuses on middle market buyout and growth equity investments of $25 million to $100 million. The firm invests in the following sectors: basic industries and services; energy; healthcare; and telecommunications/media/technology. Ridgemont Equity Partners is headquartered in Charlotte, NC (www.ridgemontep.com).
2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 9-22-14
