Archives for March 31, 2015

Irving Place Capital Acquires Bendon from Wicks

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Irving Place Capital has completed its acquisition of Bendon, a provider of non-licensed and licensed children’s coloring and activity products, from The Wicks Group.

“We have experienced strong growth with the Wicks team, and they have been a valuable partner to us throughout their ownership,” said Bendon’s Chief Executive Officer, Ben Ferguson.  “We’ve built a better, more profitable business together, and we are excited to be teaming with Irving Place to continue our expansion, both organically and through acquisitions.”

Bendon is a designer and producer of children’s coloring and activity products.  The existing product portfolio includes coloring and activity books, kits, sets and play packs, puzzle books, box puzzles, and other early childhood development games.  By utilizing a licensed portfolio of the world’s most popular children’s characters and brands, Bendon sells more than 350 million units per year in more than 80,000 retail outlets in North America. The company was established in 2002 and is headquartered in Ashland, OH with five additional offices in the US (www.bendoninc.com).

“This is an attractively positioned, exciting company with significant potential,” said John Howard, Chief Executive Officer at Irving Place Capital. “We are thrilled to be in partnership with Ben and his team, and we look forward to continuing the success and growth they have enjoyed under Wicks’ ownership.”

Irving Place Capital invests in buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital opportunities. The firm focuses on making control or entrepreneur-driven investments. Since its formation in 1997, Irving Place Capital has been an investor in 60 companies and manages over $4 billion, including its current $2.7 billion institutional fund. The firm is based in New York (www.irvingplacecapital.com).

Wicks Capital Partners acquired Bendon in February 2012. The firm invests in lower-middle-market companies operating in select segments of the information, education and media industries principally in the United States and Canada.  Sectors of specific interest include educational content and services, business services and information, consumer information, healthcare information, radio and television broadcasting, and other media. The firm was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in New York (www.wicksgroup.com).

“Over the last few years, Ben Ferguson and his team have established Bendon as a true market leader in its categories. We were delighted to have had the chance to work closely with them and are excited to see what they can accomplish with their new partners at IPC. We wish them both continued success,” said Daniel Black, Managing Partner at Wicks.

Robert W. Baird & Company acted as financial advisor to Wicks on the transaction. Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel to Irving Place Capital.

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-31-15

Seacoast Capital Invests in Amerit Fleet

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Seacoast Capital has made an investment in Amerit Fleet Solutions, a provider of fleet maintenance services for utilities, transportation & logistics, and distribution clients.  The investment from Seacoast Capital will be used to pursue a growth strategy that involves new services and new service locations throughout the US.

“Amerit is a leading company in the fleet maintenance industry. They are in a unique position to take advantage of tremendous growth opportunities as companies look to focus on their core competencies and outsource maintenance to improve efficiency,” said Jeffrey Holland, Partner at Seacoast Capital.  “Amerit has a very strong management team, and we look forward to working closely with them to implement their growth strategy.”

Amerit Fleet Solutions is a provider of outsourced fleet maintenance services for utilities, transportation & logistics, and distribution clients.  The company has service contracts on over 100,000 vehicles located at over 500 sites nationwide.  Amerit Fleet Solutions was founded in 2009 by Gary Herbold, Dan Williams and Amein Punjani. The company grew both through organic growth and through the December 2011 acquisition of the assets of Kelley Fleet Services.  Amerit Fleet is headquartered near San Francisco in Walnut Creek, CA (www.ameritfleetsolutions.com).

“Amerit has become the leading provider of outsourced maintenance and repair services by staying focused on its core mission to provide customized, innovative service solutions that improve uptime and performance while reducing costs,” said Mr. Williams, CEO of Amerit.  “Looking forward, we knew we wanted a strategic partner who could help us continue to build a strong and dynamic company, and Seacoast is that partner.”

Seacoast Capital provides between $3 million and $12 million of debt and equity capital for acquisitions, growth, shareholder buyouts, management buyouts, and leveraged recapitalizations. While industry agnostic, Seacoast has a particular interest in the specialty manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business services sectors.  Seacoast targets investments in companies with $20 million to $150 million in revenue and $2 million or more of EBITDA. Seacoast is currently investing its third fund, Seacoast Capital Partners III, with $150 million of capital commitments.  The firm was founded in 1994 and has offices in Boston and San Francisco (www.seacoastcapital.com).

“Seacoast understands the Amerit vision and has really been helpful throughout the whole process,” said Mr. Punjani, COO of Amerit.  “With Seacoast’s help we have a very bright future ahead of us. We are very excited to be working with them.”

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-31-15

Breakaway Capital Backs Wave Technology

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Breakaway Capital, through its inaugural Breakaway Capital Partners Fund, L.P., has provided a senior secured credit facility to Wave Technology Solutions Group, a provider of consulting services.

“Breakaway Capital is a great partner for Wave. They were creative and flexible. Equally as important is the wealth of experience and relationships that Breakaway’s principals bring to an entrepreneurial owned and managed company like ours,” said Matt Vaezi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wave Technology Solutions Group.

Wave Technology is a provider of consulting services for enterprise content management; intelligent capture to transform high volume documents into actionable data; business process automation that reviews products or service flow to identify areas of automation, optimization, and re-engineering; records and retention management, eDiscovery and compliance; eMail management and archiving; and disaster recovery and prevention. Wave Technology has a customer base of over 200 enterprise-wide document and content management installations. The company was founded in 1992 and is based in Irvine, CA (www.waveimaging.com).

The Wave transaction represents Breakaway Capital’s second investment in 2015.  According to Warren Woo, Managing Partner of Breakaway Capital, “We are thrilled to provide financing to Wave. Matt and his management team have built a quality company by providing value-added solutions to its broad base of Fortune 1000 and municipality customers.  This transaction is representative of Breakaway’s strategy to provide complete one-stop financing solutions for lower middle market companies, financial sponsors and independent sponsors.”

Breakaway has approximately $50 million of committed capital under management and provides senior debt, subordinated and mezzanine debt, unitranche structures, structured equity and common equity to companies with up to $5 million of EBITDA.  The firm targets leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations, restructurings and growth capital for both sponsored and non-sponsored transactions. Breakaway Capital Partners was founded by Warren Woo and is based in Los Angeles (www.breakawaycap.com).

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-31-15

Lovell Minnick Acquires J.S. Held

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Lovell Minnick Partners has acquired a majority interest in J.S. Held and Held Enloe & Associates (J.S. HELD), specialty advisory firms providing outsourced insurance related consulting services.  The senior management team of both firms will continue to hold a significant minority interest in the combined company.

“We believe that an increasing propensity among insurers to seek third-party expertise when managing complex claims, coupled with the depth and talents of the J.S. Held and Held Enloe professionals, will result in significant growth opportunities for the company,” said Lovell Minnick Managing Director Bob Belke.

J.S. Held has extensive experience in property loss consulting, including estimating, scheduling and project monitoring.  Since founding in 1974, J.S. Held’s consultants have evaluated damage to more than 50,000 buildings and structures throughout the world and have experience working on all types of engagements including insurance claims related to commercial, industrial, high rise, special structures, governmental, residential, and infrastructure damages.  The company has a presence in over 20 locations throughout the US and is headquartered outside of New York City in Roslyn Heights, NY   (www.jsheld.com).

“With the Lovell Minnick investment, J.S. Held has a partner who shares our vision for growth. Through its depth of knowledge and focus on financial service firms, Lovell Minnick has an extraordinary track record of investing in growth-oriented companies in our sector,” said J.S. Held’s President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathon Held.

Lovell Minnick provides buyout and growth capital to companies in the financial services industry and manages private equity partnerships with committed capital totaling over $850 million. The firm is the successor to the private equity affiliate of Putnam Lovell Securities which was established in 1999 by Jeffrey Lovell and James Minnick. Lovell Minnick has offices in Philadelphia and Los Angeles (www.lovellminnick.com).

Deloitte Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor to J.S. Held and Held Enloe.  William Blair & Company acted as financial advisor to Lovell Minnick.

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-31-15

TowerBrook to Acquire J.Jill

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TowerBrook Capital Partners has entered into an agreement to purchase J.Jill, a multi-channel fashion retailer of women’s apparel, accessories and footwear. TowerBrook will acquire J.Jill from Arcapita and Golden Gate Capital which acquired the company in July 2009 from Talbots.

J. Jill is a multi-channel retailer of woman’s apparel. The company sells its merchandise through 205 stores across the United States, through its website, and through 26 published catalogs per year. Originally founded in 1959, J. Jill is headquartered outside of Boston in Quincy, MA (www.jjill.com).

Post-closing, Paula Bennett will remain in her current role as President and Chief Executive Officer of J.Jill.  “The sale of J.Jill reflects our industry leading success, having just completed our best sales year in history and 12 quarters of consecutive growth. We are delighted to partner with TowerBrook. Their investment in J.Jill provides support for future development and the ability to maximize our potential as a brand and business. We have a shared vision to capitalize on our understanding of our customer and the strength of our omni-channel business. We look forward to the opportunities ahead for J.Jill to continue to delight, inspire and guide our customers,” said Ms. Bennett.

TowerBrook has experience in the consumer retail and luxury space and has made control-oriented investments in companies such as Jimmy Choo, True Religion, Kaporal and Phase Eight.  More generally, the firm makes control investments in large and middle market companies across and array of industries.  TowerBrook has offices in New York, London, and San Francisco (www.towerbrook.com).

Fully committed financing will be provided by Jefferies and Macquarie Group. Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey acted as financial advisors to J.Jill and Macquarie Group acted as financial advisor to TowerBrook Capital Partners. The acquisition of J.Jill by TowerBrook is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015.

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-31-15

Comcast Forms New Investment Company

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Comcast has entered into an agreement with the its Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, Michael Angelakis, to establish a new company to invest in and operate growth-oriented companies, both domestically and internationally.  Prior to joining Comcast in 2007, Mr. Angelakis was a Managing Director and Member of the Investment and Management Committees at Providence Equity Partners.

“This is a time of tremendous change and opportunity in our core technology and media industries, as well as in adjacent business areas,” said Brian Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast. “We believe the ability to establish entrepreneurial ventures that partner with and participate in the growth of innovative companies can be an important driver of strategic and financial value creation for our company.”

Mr. Angelakis will serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the as yet unnamed new company with a mandate to pursue new areas of growth and diversification for Comcast. The new company will have total capital commitments of up to $4.1 billion, of which $4 billion will be invested by Comcast, at least $40 million will be invested personally by Mr. Angelakis, and the remainder of the capital will come from other senior members of the new company’s management team. Comcast’s investment will be under an exclusive, 10-year partnership with Comcast as sole outside investor.

“Michael is an extraordinary leader and strategic partner, and has helped transform Comcast into the media and technology company that we are today,” said Mr. Roberts. “His work to structure the NBCUniversal and Time Warner Cable transactions has been invaluable in laying the successful financial groundwork for Comcast. In the past, Comcast has made substantial investments in companies like QVC, Comcast Cellular and SpectrumCo, which have generated tremendous strategic and shareholder value. I couldn’t be more excited about the future and Michael’s role in building this new company.”

Comcast has begun a search for a successor Chief Financial Officer, and following the appointment of the new CFO, Mr. Angelakis will then serve as a Senior Advisor to Comcast. Mr. Angelakis will assist with the transition to the new CFO and begin the integration process of Time Warner Cable.

“As we enter the final phase of the Time Warner Cable transaction, this is a great time to begin a transition and I am excited to start this new, entrepreneurial company,” said Mr. Angelakis. “Our industry is dynamic and I am very excited and optimistic about the many opportunities available to Comcast.”

Prior to joining Comcast in 2007 – and before he joined Providence Equity Partners in 1999 – Mr. Angelakis was President and Chief Executive Officer of State Cable TV Corporation and Aurora Telecommunications. He also served as a Vice President of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in New York, where he oversaw one of the bank’s media and communications portfolios.   Mr. Angelakis is the Deputy Chairman for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and is a Trustee of Babson College.

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone provider to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts (www.comcastcorporation.com).

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-31-15