Archives for February 17, 2016

Arlington Capital Acquires Fulton Bellows

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United Flexible, a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners since January 2015, has acquired Fulton Bellows. Post closing, Fulton Bellows will continue to be run from its existing headquarters as an independent wholly-owned subsidiary of United Flexible.

Fulton Bellows is a manufacturer of bellows and thin-walled metal components that are used in gas and fluid control systems. The company has a base of just more than 175 customers and is led by its CEO John George. Fulton Bellows is headquartered in Knoxville (www.fultonbellows.com).

Fulton Bellows was founded in 1902 by Weston Fulton, a University of Tennessee meteorologist, who created a thermodynamic device he named the sylphon – a cylindrically symmetrical metal bellows – after the Norse Goddess of weather. Mr. Fulton’s invention was used by the Allied forces to develop the depth charge in World War I and the Norden Bomb sight of World War II.

“Fulton Bellows brings a unique set of capabilities in hydroforming and specialized bellows manufacturing techniques with a strong reputation and legacy built over its 110-year plus history,” said John Devine, CEO of United Flexible. “These capabilities will allow United Flexible to offer a wider range of critical bellows and highly engineered fluid and gas transfer solutions to our combined customer base.”

United Flexible designs and manufactures products that are used for the transfer of fluids and gases in extreme environments. Products include braided metal, fluoropolymer, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE – aka Teflon) and composite hoses, precision bellows, and expansion joints assemblies. The company sells its products to OEMs and distributors that are active in the aerospace & defense; satellite; power generation; general industrial; oil & gas; cooling; and transportation sectors. United Flexible has manufacturing operations near Chicago in Romeoville, IL (headquarters); Houston, TX; Merthyr Tydfil, UK (near Bristol); Stockholm, Sweden; and Rotterdam, The Netherlands (www.unitedflexible.com).

“We are pleased to provide additional capital in support of the organic and acquisition growth plans for United Flexible,” said Peter Manos, a Managing Partner at Arlington Capital. “With the acquisition of Fulton, United Flexible is executing on its strategy of expanding its portfolio of technically differentiated high pressure and extreme temperature conduit system product offerings and further expanding its blue chip customer base.”

“Fulton Bellows’ unique position as one of a few established players in the bellows space fits well with our investment thesis for United Flexible,” said Daniel Di Piazza, an Associate at Arlington Capital. “The company has a long-seeded base of recurring business with its OEM customers and presents an opportunity to further expand United Flexible’s presence in several attractive end markets.”

Arlington Capital Partners has $1.5 billion of committed capital and invests in buyouts and recapitalizations of companies valued from $50 million to $500 million. Sectors of interest include government services and technology, aerospace & defense, healthcare, and business services & software. Arlington Capital is based in Chevy Chase, MD (www.arlingtoncap.com).

© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 2-17-16

Ancor Exits Liguria Foods

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Ancor Capital Partners has sold its portfolio company Liguria Foods, a maker of pepperoni, to CTI Foods, a portfolio company of Thomas H. Lee Partners and Goldman Sachs & Co.

Ancor, along with co-investor Brown Brothers Harriman Capital Partners, acquired Liguria Foods in 2008 as a part of a spin-out of from its larger parent Specialty Food Group. At the time of the spin-out Liguria Foods was known as Humboldt Sausage Company.

Today, Liguria manufactures branded and private-label pepperoni that is sold to independent and multi-unit pizzerias and sandwich shops. The company supplements its pepperoni products with additional lines of protein pizza toppings and other dry sausage products. The company was founded in 1974 and is headquartered 80 miles north of Des Moines in Humboldt, IA (www.liguriafoods.com).

“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments that Liguria has made over the eight years since we acquired the company,” said Ray Kingsbury, Managing Director at Ancor. “When we originally were presented the investment opportunity, we were able to identify an executive team to transition Liguria into an independent entity, and partnered with Brown Brothers Harriman to buy the division. Since the acquisition, we’ve made strategic investments in the team and the plant in order to grow the company. Liguria also experienced organic growth by adding new customers and further penetrating existing customers. We are deeply appreciative of the management team and the partnership they embraced with Ancor and BBH.”

Ancor Capital Partners invests in companies with enterprise values of $25 million to $150 million that have EBITDAs from $5 million to $15 million. Sectors of interest include manufacturing, distribution, health care, consumer staples, and outsourcing. The firm is based in Fort Worth (www.ancorcapital.com).

BBH Capital Partners, a private equity fund sponsored by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., invests between $25 million and $100 million per platform investment and can act as either a control or non-control investor. Typical transactions include management or leveraged buyouts, growth financings, recapitalizations (including dividend recapitalizations), buy-and-build strategies and acquisitions. BBH Capital Partners is based in Boston (www.bbh.com).

Investment bank BlackArch was retained by Ancor Capital Partners and BBH as their financial advisor on this transaction. BlackArch was founded in 2010 by Kelly Katterhagen, Matt Salisbury, Drew Quartapella, and Bram Hall. The firm is headquartered in Charlotte with an additional office in Houston (www.blackarchpartners.com).

© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 2-17-16

CapStreet Adds-on to Legal Platform

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Keais Records Service, a portfolio company of The CapStreet Group, has completed the add-on acquisition of LegalPartners LP, a legal services company.

LegalPartners provides subpoena, records retrieval and document management services to insurance companies, law firms and third party administrators. The company is led by CEO Tony Maddocks and is based in Houston (www.legalpartners.com).

“This acquisition is an important and exciting first step in the Keais growth story,” said Neil Kallmeyer, managing partner, CapStreet. “LegalPartners represents the first of many acquisitions we plan to make as we execute on Keais’ buy and build strategy.”

Keais is a national provider of outsourced document retrieval services. The company’s services are used by insurance carriers and law firms to retrieve medical records and other supporting documents to verify claim benefits or as supporting evidence in legal processes. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Houston (www.keais.com). Keais has been a portfolio company of The CapStreet Group since February 2015.

“LegalPartners is a natural fit for Keais,” said Newton Ross, CEO of Keais. “The acquisition will broaden our insurance and law firm customer base, while also enhancing our third party administrator vertical.”

CapStreet makes control investments in privately held, lower middle market companies that are headquartered in Texas and surrounding states. CapStreet targets industrial and diversified business service companies with annual EBITDA between $5 million and $20 million.

“We see a tremendous growth opportunity for Keais in both the document retrieval market and in other related outsourced services,” said Tom Caughlin, principal at CapStreet.

The buy of Keais in February 2015 was CapStreet’s first investment in its fourth fund, CapStreet IV, LP which has $340 million in capital commitments and closed in May 2014.

In April 2015, CapStreet IV acquired its second portfolio company with the buy of Creative Resource Group, a provider of facility maintenance, logistics, safety and transportation services to companies operating in the refining, chemical, pipeline and terminals, power, pulp and paper, and pharmaceutical sectors.

CapStreet was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Houston (www.capstreet.com).

© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 2-17-16

Olympus Acquires G.E.T. Enterprises

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Olympus Partners has acquired G.E.T. Enterprises, a provider of servingware and drinkware used in the foodservice industry. The buy of G.E.T. Enterprises is Olympus’ fifth investment out of its $2.3 billion sixth fund.

G.E.T. Enterprises’ products are by commercial foodservice providers in the restaurants, hotels, casinos, colleges and universities, nightclubs, and cruise lines sectors. The company has more than 3,500 SKUs and its products are made from melamine as well as ceramic, glass, and other disposable materials. G.E.T. Enterprises is headquartered in Houston (www.get-melamine.com).

“We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to partner with Olympus to continue to grow organically and to continue our acquisition strategy,” said Ms. Modaro, CEO of G.E.T. Enterprises.

Olympus has previously been active in servingware and drinkware industry. In August 2015 it sold The Waddington Group – a manufacturer of disposable drinkware, dinnerware, servingware, and cutlery – to Jarden Corporation for$1.35 billion. Olympus acquired Waddington from Seven Mile Capital Partners in October 2012.

“G.E.T. is a market leading player in the evolving food service industry that provides its customers differentiated products with a clear path to continued growth,” said Mike Horgan, Partner at Olympus. “We look forward to working with the very talented management team lead by CEO Heidi Modaro to help support the growth of the company through continued investment in the business and through strategic acquisitions.”

Olympus Partners, with $5.5 billion of capital under management, provides equity capital for middle market management buyouts and for companies needing capital for expansion. Sectors of interest include restaurants, consumer products, healthcare services, financial services, packaging and business services. The firm was founded in 1988 and is based in Stamford (www.olympuspartners.com).

Working on this transaction for Olympus, in addition to Mr. Horgan, was partner Manu Bettegowda, principal Chase Ormond, and associate Sam Greenberg.

Debt financing was provided by Antares Capital (www.antarescapital.com), Bank of Ireland (www.bankofireland.com), Varagon Capital (www.varagon.com), Rabobank (www.rabobankamerica.com) and NewStar Financial (newstarfinancialinc.com).

Legal counsel was provided to Olympus by Benjamin Clinger and Matthew Goulding from Kirkland & Ellis (www.kirkland.com).

© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 2-17-16

Trivest Adds Another Partner

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Trivest Partners has added Greg Baty to the firm as its newest partner. Prior to joining Trivest, Mr. Baty was a Principal at Hamilton Lane where he managed the firm’s South Florida office.

Over the past decade, Trivest has completed numerous acquisitions and investments in founder and family owned businesses. The firm continues to see an ever increasing number of investment opportunities from business brokers, lawyers, and accountants. According to Trivest, the natural evolution of the firm’s development and expansion will be investing across a wider spectrum of opportunities, including control, non-control and growth investments.

Mr. Baty will lead Trivest’s non-control and growth investments efforts. “I am excited to join the Trivest team,” said Mr. Baty. “The firm has built the definitive brand in private equity for founder and family owned businesses and now we will use the decades of our combined expertise to capitalize on non-control and growth opportunities.”

“Pursuing growth and non-control investments will allow us to capitalize on Trivest’s significant and previously untapped deal flow in this area. We are thrilled to have an investor of Greg’s caliber leading this brand extension and look forward to the significant benefits his addition will bring to our investors and firm,” said Troy Templeton, Trivest’s Managing Partner.

In 2009, the Florida State Board of Administration selected Hamilton Lane as the General Partner of the Florida Growth Fund (FGF), a $250 million investment vehicle focused on Florida private equity opportunities. Under Mr. Baty’s leadership, the FGF successfully invested the initial $250 million of capital and followed this effort with two subsequent allocations of $250 million. In total the FGF made 30 direct investments in operating companies.

Prior to Hamilton Lane, Mr. Baty held investment positions in both private equity and venture finance. He also played nine years as a professional football player in the National Football League. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in 1986 and made three all-rookie teams. He finished his career with the Miami Dolphins. Mr. Baty received both an undergraduate and master’s degree from Stanford University.

The addition of Mr. Baty follows the promotion last month of Jorge Gross to Partner. Mr. Gross joined Trivest in 2006 and was previously a Principal at the firm. He has worked closely with several Trivest investments including AM Conservation, ATX Networks and Hazmasters.

Trivest makes control and non-control investments in founder or family owned businesses in the United States and Canada that have revenues of at least $25 million and cash flows of at least $5 million. Sectors of interest include business services, niche manufacturing, consumer products, and franchisors. The firm was founded in 1981 and has completed more than 225 transactions totaling over $5.5 billion in value. Trivest is headquartered in Miami (www.trivest.com).

© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 2-17-16