Vanguard Dealer Services, a portfolio company of Southfield Capital, has acquired Centurion Automotive Products, a seller of finance and insurance products to automobile dealerships in the Northeast.
Centurion offers third party vehicle service contracts and provides consulting services to dealerships. The company also distributes vehicle appearance protection products. Centurion is based in Syracuse, NY (www.centurionauto.net). The senior management team, led by CEO Mark Fiorini, will continue in their operational roles with the company.
“We are very excited to partner with an organization with such deep roots in the finance and insurance industry. Centurion’s long history in the Northeast is a testament to its customer-centric focus and the value it creates for the dealers it services. Mark Fiorini and his team are excellent additions to the Vanguard platform and we will look to leverage them in our ongoing pursuit to create a best-in-class service offering,” said Jim Polley, CEO of Vanguard.
Vanguard is an agent and administrator of finance and insurance products and services to franchised automobile dealers. Vanguard offers a portfolio of proprietary and third party auto extended warranty (vehicle service contracts) and ancillary products such as tire protection, key replacement, dent repair and pre-paid maintenance. The company also offers other financial and insurance consulting services to dealers such as training, compensation plan development, reinsurance, incentive management, sales strategy, compliance review, and staffing. Vanguard was founded in 1999 and is headquartered just west of New York City in Fairfield, NJ (www.vanguarddealerservices.com).
Southfield Capital provides capital for majority recapitalizations and management-led buyouts of lower middle-market businesses. The firm makes control investments of $10 million to $40 million of equity in transactions with $20 million to $100 million of enterprise value. Typical target companies will have from $4 million to $12 million of EBITDA. Sectors of interest include: business services; consumer products & services; distribution & fulfillment; energy; healthcare; media & entertainment; niche manufacturing; power & infrastructure; specialty finance; and specialty retail. Southfield Capital was founded in 2005 as the successor company to the private investment firm Levison & Company and is headquartered in Greenwich, CT (www.southfieldcapital.com).
East West Bank (www.eastwestbank.com) provided the senior debt financing for this transaction. East West provided the original senior financing when Southfield acquired Vanguard in August 2015. Finn Dixon & Herling (www.fdh.com) was the legal advisor to Vanguard.
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 11-9-16
