Bain Capital Private Equity has agreed to acquire Varsity Brands from Charlesbank Capital Partners and Partners Group which together acquired the company in November 2014.
Varsity Brands operates through three businesses: BSN Sports, a distributor of sports equipment and apparel; Varsity Spirit, a provider of cheerleading uniforms and educational camps, clinics and competitions; and Herff Jones, a provider of graduation and educational products and services.
Varsity Brands markets and sells its products through catalogs, telesales, e-commerce sites, and direct sales channels to elementary and middle schools, high schools and colleges/universities, as well as professional and collegiate sports teams and corporations. The company, led by CEO Adam Blumenfeld, was founded in 1974 and has more than 9,000 employees. Varsity Brands is headquartered in Memphis (www.varsitybrands.com).
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. However, CNBC has reported that the enterprise valuation for the transaction is $2.5 billion. Varsity had revenues of $1.7 billion last year and $1.55 billion in 2016.
“For over 40 years, Varsity Brands has served as an essential force for good as part of the academic and athletic student experience,” said Ryan Cotton, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Private Equity. “We are excited to partner with the company’s experienced, committed management team to amplify the company’s e-commerce operations and digital expansion, while accelerating its growth through complementary acquisitions and organic initiatives to become the go-to source for every school’s sport, spirit and achievement needs.”
Bain Capital Private Equity was founded in 1984 and invests in the consumer and retail; financial and business services; healthcare; industrials; and technology, media and telecommunications sectors. The firm has a team of approximately 220 investment professionals with offices in Boston, Chicago, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Dublin, London, Munich, Melbourne, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo (www.baincapitalprivateequity.com).
“We were fortunate to partner with Adam Blumenfeld and his outstanding management team and enjoyed working with them to execute on their growth strategy,” said Andrew Janower, a Managing Director at Charlesbank Capital Partners. “Together, we closed multiple strategic acquisitions, grew the sales force, achieved significant cost-savings and enhanced the customer experience. We are proud of what Varsity Brands has achieved and are confident that its success will continue as it pursues its next growth phase.”
“We are grateful to Charlesbank and Partners Group for their support and guidance,” added Mr. Blumenfeld. “They have played an integral role in helping Varsity Brands execute our growth strategy while serving as excellent partners in pursuit of our unique and powerful mission.”
Charlesbank invests from $50 million to $250 million in management-led buyouts and growth capital financings in companies with enterprise values of $150 million to $1.5 billion. Sectors of interest include consumer, industrial, industrial services and distribution, TMT and business services. In October 2017, the firm held a final closing of Charlesbank Equity Fund IX at its hard cap of $2.75 billion. The firm has offices in Boston and New York (www.charlesbank.com).
Partners Group is a global investment management firm with over $74 billion of assets under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure and private debt. The firm is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, and has over 950 employees across 19 offices around the globe (www.partnersgroup.com).
Jefferies is the lead financial advisor to Charlesbank and Partners Group, and Goldman Sachs and Peter J Solomon are serving as co-advisors.
Goodwin Procter advised Varsity Brands on this transaction. The Goodwin legal team was led by partners Joseph Bernardi and Jim Curley and included partners Jennifer Bralower, Milena Tantcheva and William Whitledge and associates Anne Cataldo, Richard Evans, Laura Jacobs and Argyrios Saccopoulos.
Kirkland & Ellis is serving as legal counsel to Bain Capital Private Equity.
The sale of Varsity Brands to Bain Capital is expected to close during the third quarter of 2018.
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | June 20, 2018
Drake Automotive Group, a portfolio company of Huron Capital, has acquired Addictive Desert Designs (ADD), a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of truck, SUV, and Jeep accessories for the off-road aftermarket.
Drake Automotive Group is an automotive aftermarket parts brand serving the classic car, off-road, and late model “muscle car” categories. The company is led by CEO Keith Belair and is headquartered in Henderson, NV (
“We believe ADD’s diverse off-road offerings and leading-edge designs are a great addition for Drake and will boost our position in the off-road aftermarket,” said Michael Zukas, a vice president at Huron. “We are thrilled to have ADD join the Drake family and are excited about the complementary products and incremental growth opportunities that we are gaining with this transaction.”
Huron Capital is an operationally-focused private equity firm that makes control and non-control investments in companies with revenues of $20 million to $200 million and EBITDAs of $5 million or more. Sectors of interest include business services, consumer goods & services, and specialty industrials. Founded in 1999, Detroit-based Huron Capital has raised over $1.8 billion in capital through six private equity funds and invested in over 150 companies (
Morgan Stanley Capital Partners has completed its acquisition of Comar from Graham Partners which had acquired the business in October 2013.
The company has eight manufacturing facilities across the US and in Puerto Rico: Garden Grove, CA (40,000 sq. ft. facility); West Bend, WI (40,000 sq. ft. facility); Buena, NJ (172,000 sq. ft. facility); Saddle Brook, NJ (100,000 sq. ft. facility); Cayey, Puerto Rico (90,000 sq. ft.); Sheboygan, WI (183,000 sq. ft. facility); Rancho Cucamonga, CA (115,000 sq. ft. facility); Hoschton, GA (111,000 sq. ft. facility).
Comar was founded in 1949 as the TST Glass Company, a converter of glass tubing for use in medical applications, and is headquartered near Philadelphia in Voorhees, NJ (
Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (MSCP) partnered with Comar’s senior management team, led by CEO Michael Ruggieri, to complete this transaction. “We are delighted to partner with Michael Ruggieri and the Comar team,” said Mark Bye, Managing Director and Operating Partner of MSCP. “MSCP’s investment in Comar is the culmination of a multi-year review of the rigid packaging sector and we believe the company is primed for outsized growth.”
“We are excited to invest in Comar, which is a premier engineered packaging and dosing solutions provider in the US,” said Eric Kanter, Managing Director of MSCP. “Graham Partners, the prior sponsor, has invested in a world-class management team who has targeted highly attractive end markets and best in class capabilities. We look forward to supporting the talented management team during the coming years of organic and acquisition-fueled growth as the company executes its strategy to develop increasing exposure to medical/drug delivery products.”
MSCP is the middle-market focused private equity business of Morgan Stanley Investment Management which in turn is part Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), a financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. MSCP invests in North American-based companies that are active in the business services, consumer, healthcare and industrials markets Click 
USA Services is a provider of street sweeping services specializing in state and municipal roadway maintenance throughout Florida. The company serves customers in Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa, Naples, Fort Myers, and Daytona Beach. USA Services was founded in 1989 and is headquartered near Orlando in Longwood, FL with additional facilities in Jacksonville, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fort Myers/Naples and the Space Coast (Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Port Canaveral and Titusville) (
Hy-Tech provides street sweeping services to customers in metro Richmond, Tidewater, Virginia Beach, Northern Virginia, Raleigh, and Coastal Carolina regions as well as parts of Washington DC and Maryland. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered near Richmond in Midlothian, VA (
“SCA has completed nine acquisitions in the sweeping space since the first quarter of 2017 and plans to continue its growth in both existing and new markets. These additions will allow SCA to better serve their customers across a broader geography,” said Jarrett Turner, Managing Partner of Soundcore.
Soundcore Capital Partners invests from $2 million to $60 million of control equity in lower middle market companies that are headquartered in the US or Canada. Typical targets will have from $1 million to $10 million in EBITDA. Sectors of interest include services, specialty distribution, and valued added manufacturing. Soundcore was founded in 2015 and is based in New York (
