Blackstone has agreed to make a majority equity investment in Cloverleaf Cold Storage alongside the company’s existing family shareholders.
Cloverleaf Cold Storage is a cold storage warehouse and food processing company. Cloverleaf operates a network of 19 warehouses across eight states that provide a variety of food-grade storage, handling, and freezing services. The company has more than 800 customers including many of the largest food producers in the world.
Cloverleaf was founded in 1952 and is the 8th largest public refrigerated warehouse company in North America according to the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses. The company, headquartered in Sioux City, IA, was founded in 1934 by the Feiges and Kaplan families and was formerly known as Farmers Produce Company (www.cloverleaf.com).
“At Cloverleaf, we are focused on building our business for the long-term, continuing to deliver our customers best-in-class service and supporting our communities,” said Daniel Kaplan, Co-President of Cloverleaf. “Our partnership with a world-class firm such as Blackstone provides us with significant capital and operating resources to invest for growth and continue to expand our platform. The Feiges and Kaplan families are very pleased to be working with Blackstone as we begin the next chapter of our growth story.”
“We are pleased to invest significant capital into Cloverleaf to assist the company’s existing shareholders and management team in continuing to build a market leading platform within the cold storage industry, which has been a strategic industry we have prioritized for investment,” said David Kestnbaum, a Managing Director at Blackstone.
Blackstone’s investment activities include private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds. The firm also provides financial advisory services, including financial and strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory, and fund placement services. Blackstone is headquartered in New York (www.blackstone.com).
“The Feiges and Kaplan families’ multi-decade commitment to building Cloverleaf into a leading cold storage platform is very impressive,” said Seth Meisel, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone. “We are excited to partner with Cloverleaf and its outstanding management team, and we look forward to supporting Cloverleaf’s continued growth and expansion.”
Wells Fargo Securities was the financial advisor to Cloverleaf on this transaction while Barclays and Goldman Sachs were the financial advisors to Blackstone. Committed debt financing for the recapitalization was provided by Goldman Sachs.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | November 15, 2017
