Archives for January 2018

H.I.G. Forms Home Textiles Platform

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H.I.G. Capital has acquired Town & Country Holdings, the parent company of Town & Country Living. This new investment by H.I.G. will serve as a platform for a build-up in the home textiles and accessories sector.

Town and Country Living (T&C) is a supplier of kitchen textiles, table linens, bath textiles, performance and decorative rugs and mats, and other home products to retailers throughout North America. T&C’s customer base includes Bed Bath & Beyond, Big Lots, Bloomingdales, Costco, Kroger, Macy’s, Marshalls, Meijer, Nordstrom, Walmart and TJ Maxx.

The company’s products are sold through both licensed brands and private label programs. T&C, headquartered in Lakewood, NJ, was founded in 1954 and is a third generation family-owned business (www.tncliving.com).

“David and Jeffrey Beyda have successfully positioned T&C as a true partner to its customers and licensors. We believe T&C’s existing product and service offerings provide a great foundation for growth,” said Todd Ofenloch, Managing Director at H.I.G. “We look forward to working with the Beydas to grow the company.”

H.I.G. specializes in providing capital to small and medium-sized companies and invests in management-led buyouts and recapitalizations of manufacturing and service businesses. H.I.G. has more than $22 billion of capital under management. The firm is based in Miami with additional offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro (www.higcapital.com).

“H.I.G. is the right partner for us. They understand our history, our business today, and the future growth strategy required to take Town and Country to the next level. The H.I.G. team brings to bear tremendous resources that will enable us to execute on our growth strategy more quickly than we could on our own,” said David Beyda, T&C’s Chairman and CEO.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 31, 2018

BelHealth Acquires Ready Hands

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Care Advantage, a portfolio company of BelHealth Investment Partners, has acquired Ready Hands.

Ready Hands provides private pay personal care services to the elderly and disabled. Services include bathing, hygiene, companionship, household chores, medication administration, and meal preparation. Ready Hands, headquartered in Alexandria, VA, services patients in Fairfax County, Arlington County, Alexandria City and Prince William County. The company has approximately 100 employees and was founded in 2002 by Dr. Robert Benson and Sue Benson (www.readyhands.com).

Care Advantage is one of Virginia’s largest privately held home healthcare providers. The company specializes in nursing care in the home and provides private duty nursing and personal care services such as bathing, dressing and companionship and also provides skilled services primarily by licensed nurses. Care Advantage has 17 branch locations throughout Virginia and is headquartered in Richmond (www.careadvantageinc.com).

“When we made our investment in Care Advantage, Northern Virginia was our number one target as a new geography,” said Scott Lee, Managing Director of BelHealth. “This acquisition expands our census and provides access to a population of two million people. Care Advantage has been focused on building its personal care business, and Ready Hands brings new capabilities and geographical presence. We are positioning ourselves for exponential growth with this acquisition.”

The buy of Ready Hands is Care Advantage’s third add-on acquisition since BelHealth acquired the company in January 2017 and is its first entry into the Northern Virginia market. The two earlier add-on acquisitions were the May 2017 buy of Stay at Home Personal Care, a provider of in-home non-skilled personal care services, which strengthened Care Advantage’s presence in Southeastern Virginia and added six new counties of coverage; and in December 2017 it acquired Care Solutions, also a provider of in-home non-skilled personal care services to the Southeastern Virginia market.

BelHealth Investment Partners invests from $20 million to $50 million in companies in three healthcare segments: services, products, and distribution. The firm is currently investing out of its second fund which closed in June 2015 at the hard cap of $350 million. Fund I was raised in 2012 with $150 million of committed capital. BelHealth is headquartered in New York (www.belhealth.com).

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 31, 2018

Saugatuck Keeps Building APCT

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APCT, a portfolio company of Saugatuck Capital, has acquired Cartel Electronics and its sister company Cirtech.

Cartel Electronics specializes in the manufacture of prototype and quick-turn rigid printed circuit boards for commercial applications. The company is headquartered near Los Angeles in Placentia, CA (www.cartelelectronics.com). In December 2016, Cartel Electronics acquired Cirtech, a maker of printed circuit boards for the aerospace and defense markets. Cirtech was founded in 1965 and is headquartered near Los Angeles in Orange, CA (www.cirtech.com).

APCT (Advanced Printed Circuit Technology) is a manufacturer of quick-turn, complex, multilayer printed circuit boards. The quick-turn segment is a market niche within the printed circuit board industry that serves original equipment manufacturers and electronic manufacturing services providers who require time-critical manufacturing capabilities. These jobs are typically characterized by small quantities, premium pricing and fast turnaround times. APCT, headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, was founded in 1977 and has over 90 employees (www.apctinc.com).

The buy of Cartel Electronics is the second add-on acquisition for APCT. In April 2016 the company acquired Tech Circuits and its sister company Source Technologies. Both companies are active in the prototyping and quick-turn manufacturing of highly complex printed circuit boards. Tech Circuits and Source Technologies, now units of APCT, are based near Hartford in Wallingford, CT.

Saugatuck invests in leveraged recapitalizations, buyouts, and growth equity investments in the lower middle-market.  The firm seeks companies with revenues of $15 million to $100 million and invests in a wide range of niche industries. Saugatuck was founded in 1982 and is based in Wilton, CT (www.saugatuckcapital.com).

CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), APCT’s senior lender, provided debt financing for the transaction.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 31, 2018

Silversmith Closes on $670 Million

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After just three months in the market, Silversmith Capital Partners has held a first and final closing of its second fund, Silversmith Capital Partners II LP (Fund II) at its target and hard cap of $670 million. The fund was significantly oversubscribed.

Limited partners in the new fund include investors from Fund I – endowments, foundations, fund of funds, and pension funds – and also includes a small number of new investors. In addition, more than 25 CEOs, founders, and industry executives invested in Fund II.

Silversmith was founded in 2015 by Todd MacLean and Jeff Crisan, former managing directors with Bain Capital Ventures; Jim Quagliaroli, former managing director of Spectrum Equity; and Lori Whelan, a former Bain & Company consultant. Today, the firm has 13 investment professionals and is based in Boston (www.silversmithcapital.com).

Silversmith closed its first fund in August 2015 with $460 million of capital commitments. Consistent with the strategy of its first fund, Fund II will invest from $15 million to $75 million per company with a focus on two core industry verticals: software-as-a-service & information services; and healthcare information technology & services.

“We are grateful for the continued support of our existing limited partners and are excited to add a select group of endowments and foundations,” said Jim Quagliaroli, Managing Partner of Silversmith. “We look forward to continuing our long track record of supporting founder-led growth businesses across our core areas of expertise.”

Monument Group (www.monumentgroup.com) was the placement agent for this fundraise and Proskauer Rose (www.proskauer.com) provided legal services.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 31, 2018

Wind Point Buys California Natural Products

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Wind Point Partners’ portfolio company Gehl Foods has completed the add-on acquisition of California Natural Products.

California Natural Products (CNP) is an aseptic packager of dairy-based and dairy alternative beverages, soups, broths, teas, nutritional drinks, and wine and spirits, all in Tetra Pak cartons. Aseptic processing is the process by which a sterile (aseptic) product is packaged in a sterile container. In addition, CNP provides specialty ingredient development and manufacturing of rice-based syrups and sweeteners, soy milk and non-dairy protein.

CNP was founded in 1980 by owner Pat Mitchell and operates out of three facilities located near Oakland in Lathrop, CA (www.cnp.com).

In March 2015, Wind Point Partners acquired Gehl Foods from the Gehl family which founded the company in 1896. Gehl Foods is a maker and contract manufacturer of ready-to-serve, real dairy products including cheese sauces, puddings, yogurt, and dairy-based beverages. The company uses an advanced aseptic process to eliminate microorganisms that cause dairy foods to spoil and at the same time locks in freshness and taste. Gehl’s products are sold in restaurants and retail stores under the Gehl brands and other brands under the company’s contract manufacturing operations.

Gehl Foods was founded in 1896 by J.P. Gehl and is headquartered northwest of Milwaukee in Germantown, WI.  The company, led by CEO Eric Beringause, employs over 330 people at its three Germantown facilities and nearby West Bend bottle-making operation (www.gehlfoods.com).

According to Wind Point, the combination of Gehl and CNP creates a leading provider of low-acid aseptic food and beverage products. With its manufacturing facility in Germantown, WI, Gehl’s aseptic packaging capabilities include bag-in-box, pouch, #10 can, HDPE and PET single-serve bottles.  Through its West Coast operation, CNP offers filling capabilities across eight carton sizes, in addition to ingredient development and manufacturing.  CNP also adds a group of long-term customer relationships to Gehl and provides access to several growing end markets.

“CNP represents an ideal fit with Gehl and an excellent next step toward building out our platform in the growing segments of shelf-stable food and beverage,” said David Stott, a Managing Director with Wind Point Partners. “Our customers are looking for exceptional service across a breadth of packaging formats, coupled with product formulation and supply chain expertise.  Together these businesses are poised to deliver on that proposition.”

Wind Point invests from $30 million to $150 million in companies with revenues from $100 million to $500 million and EBITDAs of at least $10 million. Industries of interest include business services, consumer products and industrial products. Wind Point was founded in 1984 and is based in Chicago. In June 2017, Wind Point held a final closing of its eighth fund, Wind Point Partners VIII, with $985 million of capital commitments. The fund exceeded its initial hard cap of $750 million and marks the largest fund closing in Wind Point’s history (www.wppartners.com).

Cascadia Capital (www.cascadiacapital.com) was CNP’s financial advisor on this transaction.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 30, 2018

Kinderhook Acquires Gold Medal Services

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Kinderhook Industries has acquired Gold Medal Services, a provider of municipal, commercial and industrial solid waste collection as well as commercial recycling processing and brokerage.

Gold Medal has a fleet of over 100 vehicles and provides collection services to 6,000 commercial and industrial locations and over 150,000 residences in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey markets.  Gold Medal is headquartered near Philadelphia in Deptford, NJ (www.goldmedal.net).

Glen Miller and Jim Sage founded Gold Medal in 2014 after completing the acquisitions of Integrated Waste Services and Gold Medal Disposal and the company has completed eleven acquisitions in total. “We are very excited to partner with Kinderhook at this inflection point in the company’s history,” said Mr. Miller. “The recapitalization will enable the company to expand its service footprint in Philadelphia and South New Jersey, and build on our strong history of acquisitions.”

The buy of Gold Medal by Kinderhook was completed in conjunction with the formation of a new partnership with BioHiTech Global (OTCQB: BHTG), a green technology company based in Chestnut Ridge, NY, that develops and deploys waste management technologies. Gold Medal has entered into a management services agreement with BioHiTech (www.biohitech.com).

The buy of Gold Medal represents Kinderhook’s 32nd environmental services acquisition. “I am pleased to partner with Kinderhook,” said Frank Celli, Chief Executive Officer of BioHiTech. “Their extensive experience in environmental services and emerging technologies, coupled with their significant financial resources, make them a valuable partner for BioHiTech as we begin to utilize our proprietary technology to set a new standard for sustainable and cost-effective waste disposal in the United States.”

“Gold Medal has established itself as a leading independent collection business within the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey markets,” said Rob Michalik, Managing Director at Kinderhook.  “We believe that our capital, resources and industry expertise will help accelerate the company’s significant market potential via both organic and acquisition-driven growth.”

Kinderhook makes control investments in companies with transaction values of $25 million to $150 million in which the firm can achieve financial, operational and growth improvements. The firm makes investments in non-core divisions of public companies, management buyouts of entrepreneurial-owned businesses, troubled situations, and existing small capitalization companies lacking institutional support. Sectors of interest include healthcare services, environmental/business services, and automotive/light manufacturing. Kinderhook was founded in 2003 and is based in New York (www.kinderhook.com).

Financing for the transaction was provided by Comerica Bank.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 30, 2018