Archives for December 7, 2018

Leonard Green Builds in Legal Services

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Veritext Legal Solutions, a portfolio company of Leonard Green & Partners, has acquired Diamond Reporting & Legal Video, a provider of court reporting services.

Diamond Reporting & Legal Video (Diamond) is headquartered in Brooklyn and provides court reporting, videography services, and interpreters in all languages to its customers in the New York area and throughout the country. The company, founded in 1980 by Jane Sackheim, has a staff of over 250 court reporters, videographers and interpreters and operates 17 full-service deposition centers. The company handles cases in all areas of law including personal injury, products liability, medical and legal malpractice, labor law, intellectual property and insurance law litigation (www.diamondreporting.com).

Veritext Legal Solutions, acquired by Leonard Green from Pamplona Capital Management in August 2018, provides pre-trial deposition services through its network of over 11,500 independent court reporters. The company was founded in 1997 and has offices both internationally and across the United States with its corporate headquarters in Livingston, NJ (www.veritext.com).

Leonard Green invests in middle-market companies in a variety of situations including traditional buyouts, going-private transactions, recapitalizations, growth equity, and selective public equity and debt positions. The firm’s most recent fund, Green Equity Investors VII LP, closed in 2016 with $9.6 billion of committed capital. Leonard Green was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Los Angeles (www.leonardgreen.com).

Investment bank Janney Montgomery Scott was the exclusive financial advisor to Diamond on this transaction. “Janney’s role throughout the transaction and their knowledge of the court reporting industry were critical,” said Ms. Sackheim. “They provided senior level and high-touch advice with a laser focus on the transaction details that were critical to meet our objectives. The deal professionals also had a deep understanding and appreciation of the personal impact of selling a business we’ve spent almost four decades building and nurturing. We are truly appreciative of the value they provided.”

Greenberg Traurig (www.gtlaw.com) provided legal services to Diamond and Lowenstein Sandler (www.lowenstein.com) was legal counsel to Veritext.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | December 7, 2018

Greenbriar Invests in Logistics Company

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Greenbriar Equity Group has made an investment in BDP International, a provider of logistics and transportation services.

BDP International is a lead logistics provider (LLP) of ocean, air and ground transportation; export freight forwarding; import customs clearance and regulatory compliance; warehousing, consolidation and distribution; and online shipping transaction/tracking management. The company has more than 4,000 customers worldwide that are active in the chemical, life sciences & healthcare, retail & consumer, industrial & manufacturing, and oil & gas sectors.

BDP was founded in 1966 as the R.J. Bolte Company by Richard J. Bolte, Sr. Through a series of mergers, the company became BDP International in 1972. Today, the Philadelphia-based company operates through 148 owned offices in 34 countries across the globe and has more than 5,000 employees (www.bdpinternational.com).

“Greenbriar has a long-standing focus in the logistics sector and understands our business, strategy, and culture,” said Richard Bolte, Jr., chairman and CEO of BDP. “This partnership will enable our team to pursue new organic initiatives, acquisitions, and investments that provide our customers with additional solutions to better manage their supply chains. I am thrilled to continue as CEO and am delighted that our executive leadership team will remain fully intact. We look forward to collaborating with Greenbriar and are excited about the possibilities our new partnership will generate.”

Greenbriar invests from $75 million to $150 million of equity per transaction in services and manufacturing businesses that have enterprise from $100 million to $1 billion. Sectors of specific interest include logistics, aerospace and defense, industrial and business services, transportation, and specialty manufacturing.

“We first sought out BDP 15 years ago and introduced ourselves because of its outstanding reputation as a customer-focused, global logistics provider with a highly talented team,” said Jill Raker, a managing partner at Greenbriar. “We’ve had the pleasure to get to know the business and team in depth over the last number of years and are thrilled for the opportunity to partner with them and to invest in BDP’s future growth.”

Greenbriar is investing from its third fund, Greenbriar Equity Fund III LP, which closed in June 2014 with $1.1 billion of committed capital. The firm was founded in 1999 and is based in Rye, NY (www.greenbriarequity.com).

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | December 7, 2018

Windjammer Closes at Hard Cap

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Windjammer Capital has closed its fifth fund, Windjammer Senior Equity Fund V LP, at the hard cap of $870 million. The firm’s earlier fund closed in March 2013 with $726 million of committed capital.

Windjammer invests equity and subordinated debt as a control investor in middle market businesses located in the US or Canada that have EBITDA from $10 million to $50 million. Sectors of interest include niche manufacturing, business services and value-added distribution. The firm’s investment size will range from $50 million to $200 million per transaction. Windjammer was founded in 1990 and is based in Newport Beach, CA and Waltham, MA (www.windjammercapital.com).

The closing of Fund V marks an important generational milestone for the firm with Jeff Miehe and Greg Bondick joining Costa Littas as managing principals of the firm.

“Fund V will continue the same investment strategy employed by Windjammer in Funds III and IV by making control equity investments in market share leading, niche-oriented, middle market B2B businesses in the industrial, specialty distribution and business services sectors,” said Mr. Littas.

Investors in the new fund include private and public pension programs, insurance companies, endowments and large family offices. “We are extremely pleased with the response to our fifth fund and grateful for the continuing strong support of our longtime investors. We also are pleased to add a number of prominent institutions to our investor base of strong partners,” said Mr. Miehe.

Since its founding, Windjammer has now raised over $3 billion in committed capital, completed over 50 platform acquisitions and over 100 strategic add-ons. “Our focus in Fund V will be the same as it’s always been – using a disciplined strategy to identify and invest in great business platforms and then working closely with management to enhance the strategic value of the company,” said Mr. Bondick.  “We look forward to investing Fund V and partnering with a new group of unique and attractive businesses and their management teams.”

Lazard (www.lazard.com) was the placement agent for this fundraise and Kirkland & Ellis (www.kirkland.com) provided legal services.

© 2018 Private Equity Professional | December 7, 2018