Kingswood Capital Management and Seneca Partners have partnered on the acquisition of Lind Marine.
Lind Marine provides dredging, shipyard, salvage, marine environmental remediation, and tug and barge services in and around the San Francisco Bay area, the Sacramento River, and San Joaquin River.
In addition to its marine services, the company mines and sells more than a million tons of aggregates – sand, gravel and oyster shell calcium – that are used for asphalt, concrete, landscaping, and agricultural customers throughout the western United States, Canada and the Pacific Rim. Lind Marine, through its subsidiary Moose Boats, also manufactures aluminum catamarans and monohulls used by law enforcement, firefighters, the military and private companies.
Lind Marine was founded with a single barge and tugboat in 1906 (then known as Agricultural Lime and Compost) and today operates more than forty vessels with a headquarters near San Francisco in Vallejo, California.
Members of the Lind family – President Christian Lind and Vice President Aaron Lind – have retained an ownership interest in the company and will remain active in their current operating roles. With the closing of the transaction, Jon Slangerup, a maritime and logistics executive (from 2014 to 2016 he was the CEO of the Port of Long Beach), has been named as the company’s new CEO.
“With the Kingswood partnership and the addition of Jon Slangerup to our management team, we are ready to drive the next phase of growth at Lind Marine,” said Christian Lind. “The capital and support provided by Kingswood now gives us the opportunity to execute upon and realize the aggressive growth goals we have long wanted to pursue. It was critically important to my brother and I to pick a partner that would care for our employees and customers the way we do and support us in continuing to do things the right way, which is what Lind Marine has been doing for over a hundred years of operating. Kingswood fit the bill perfectly.”
Los Angeles-headquartered Kingswood makes control equity investments of up to $75 million in North American-based companies that have revenues from $100 million to $500 million and have positive, negative or break-even EBITDA. Kingswood’s sectors of interest include business, government, and healthcare services; consumer and retail; energy and industrials; technology, media & telecommunications; and value-added distribution. In January 2021, Kingswood held an oversubscribed and hard cap close of Kingswood Capital Opportunities Fund I LP with $230 million of capital.
“While already an industry leader in its geography, Lind Marine is uniquely positioned to become the go-to marine services provider on the west coast,” said Michael Niegsch, a partner of Kingswood. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Christian and Aaron Lind, who have done an excellent job growing and diversifying the business over the last decade, as well as Jon Slangerup and the rest of the leadership team, as the company aggressively pursues accelerated growth both organically and through strategic acquisitions.”
“The Lind Marine transaction represents another example of Kingswood’s expertise in partnering with family and owner-operated businesses,” said Alex Wolf, the managing partner of Kingswood. “The success we and our partners have had in these situations is an important part of Kingswood’s track record. We are excited about investing in and supporting Lind Marine’s continued growth and look forward to our partnership with Christian and Aaron.”
Seneca Partners makes majority or minority investments of $3 million to $40 million in North American-based companies that have revenues from $5 million to $100 million and EBITDA of $2 million to $20 million. The firm is industry agnostic but has a specific interest in specialty finance, direct-to-consumer, manufacturing, industrial services, healthcare services, and IT services. Seneca is based in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan.
Boston-based Callodine Commercial Finance, part of the Callodine Group, provided a new debt facility as part of this transaction.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | March 17, 2022
