Huron Capital Partners has sold its portfolio company Bloomer Holdings to Charter NEX Films, a portfolio company of Pamplona Capital.
Bloomer (DBA Optimum Plastics) is a producer of engineered films for use in high performance industrial, medical and consumer end-markets. In October 2014, Bloomer acquired Optimum Plastics, a producer of high barrier coextruded blown plastic films. The company’s products are engineered for specific customer needs and support a variety of material blends, colors, sizes, gauges and emboss patterns. Bloomer uses polyethylene, polypropylene and nylon to make films with a thickness of 0.75 to 40 mil (a mil is a thousandth of an inch), embossed thicknesses to 70 mil and widths from 1.5 to 88 inches. Bloomer and Optimum have facilities near Minneapolis in Bloomer, WI (www.bloomerplastics.com) and near Columbus in Delaware, OH (www.optimumplastics.com).
Huron Capital acquired Bloomer in June 2012 and during its term of ownership revenue increased both organically and from add-on acquisitions from $45 million to over $100 million and the number of employees grew from 66 to 145. The add-on acquisition of Optimum Plastics doubled the revenues of Bloomer and was the largest driver of revenue growth.
“With both cast embossed and blown film capabilities, we believe we have built Optimum into a major player in the custom films marketplace,” said Kevin Keneally, CEO. “Huron Capital has been very supportive of our organic and acquisition-related growth initiatives. The firm supported significant investments in technology, capacity and business development resources, and they shared the management team’s vision of building a technically advanced, custom manufacturer with diverse product offerings.”
Huron Capital Partners invests up to $70 million per transaction in middle market companies that have revenues up to $200 million and EBITDAs of $5 million or more. Sectors of interest include specialty manufacturing, business services, consumer goods & services, and healthcare. The firm was founded in 1999 and currently manages over $1.1 billion in committed equity through four private equity funds. Huron Capital Partners has offices in Detroit and Toronto (www.huroncapital.com).
Charter NEX – the buyer of Bloomer – supplies flexible packaging converters with an array of products, from monolayer to high barrier films, that are used in the retail food, consumer products, industrial, and medical markets. The company was acquired by Pamplona Capital in February 2015. Charter NEX has three facilities in Wisconsin and one in Massachusetts and is headquartered south of Madison in Milton, WI (www.charternex.com).
Pamplona Capital makes private equity, fund of hedge funds and single manager hedge fund investments. The firm is currently investing Pamplona Capital Partners IV LP, a €3 billion fund raised in 2014. Pamplona was founded in 2005 and is based in London and New York (www.pamplonafunds.com).
Charter NEX financed the acquisition through a combination of cash on hand and credit facilities arranged by Guggenheim Corporate Funding (www.guggenheimpartners.com). Charter NEX was advised in the transaction by Houlihan Lokey Capital (www.hl.com) with Hogan Lovells (www.hoganlovells.com) acting as legal counsel. Optimum Plastics was advised in the transaction by Mesirow Financial (www.mesirowfinancial.com) with Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn (www.honigman.com) acting as legal counsel.
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 12-4-15
