Monroe Capital has increased its credit facility to Luxury Optical to provide additional capital to support the growth of the company. Luxury Optical has been a portfolio company of aPriori Capital Partners and Goode Partners since 2006.
Luxury Optical is one of the leading retailers of ultra-luxury glasses frames, sunglasses and other eyewear. The company owns the Morgenthal Frederics and Robert Marc eyewear brands and is the exclusive North American distributor of Lunor, a German luxury eyewear brand. The company’s owned eyewear brands have distribution in more than 20 countries with 500 points of sale worldwide. Luxury Optical also operates 46 retail stores that sell luxury optical frames and sunglasses under the Robert Marc, Optica, Scene, Morgenthal Frederics, Davante and AuCourant brands. Stores are located in key metropolitan cities in North Carolina, Southern California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. Luxury Optical was founded in1999 and is headquartered in Las Vegas (www.loholdings.com).
In September 2014, Monroe Capital was the sole lead arranger and administrative agent on a $47 million unitranche financing to support the acquisition of Robert Marc Eyewear by Luxury Optical.
Monroe Capital provides senior and junior debt and equity co-investments to middle-market companies. The firm was founded in 2004 and has offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco (www.monroecap.com).
aPriori Capital invests in companies with enterprise values between $100 million and $5 billion. Sectors of interest include retail and consumer, business services, healthcare, energy, and industrial. The firm was formed in 1985 as DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and changed its name to aPriori Capital Partners in 2014 when it spun out as an independent firm from Credit Suisse. aPriori is led by former DLJ Merchant Banking co-heads Colin Taylor and Susan Schnabel and is based in New York with additional offices in Los Angeles and London (www.aprioricapital.com).
Goode Capital Partners invests from $10 million to $30 million of equity in consumer-oriented companies. The firm has a specific interest in consumer brands and services, retail, restaurants, and direct marketing/selling. Goode Capital Partners is based in New York (www.goodepartners.com).
2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 4-30-15
