Ancor Capital Partners has sold its portfolio company Liguria Foods, a maker of pepperoni, to CTI Foods, a portfolio company of Thomas H. Lee Partners and Goldman Sachs & Co.
Ancor, along with co-investor Brown Brothers Harriman Capital Partners, acquired Liguria Foods in 2008 as a part of a spin-out of from its larger parent Specialty Food Group. At the time of the spin-out Liguria Foods was known as Humboldt Sausage Company.
Today, Liguria manufactures branded and private-label pepperoni that is sold to independent and multi-unit pizzerias and sandwich shops. The company supplements its pepperoni products with additional lines of protein pizza toppings and other dry sausage products. The company was founded in 1974 and is headquartered 80 miles north of Des Moines in Humboldt, IA (www.liguriafoods.com).
“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments that Liguria has made over the eight years since we acquired the company,” said Ray Kingsbury, Managing Director at Ancor. “When we originally were presented the investment opportunity, we were able to identify an executive team to transition Liguria into an independent entity, and partnered with Brown Brothers Harriman to buy the division. Since the acquisition, we’ve made strategic investments in the team and the plant in order to grow the company. Liguria also experienced organic growth by adding new customers and further penetrating existing customers. We are deeply appreciative of the management team and the partnership they embraced with Ancor and BBH.”
Ancor Capital Partners invests in companies with enterprise values of $25 million to $150 million that have EBITDAs from $5 million to $15 million. Sectors of interest include manufacturing, distribution, health care, consumer staples, and outsourcing. The firm is based in Fort Worth (www.ancorcapital.com).
BBH Capital Partners, a private equity fund sponsored by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., invests between $25 million and $100 million per platform investment and can act as either a control or non-control investor. Typical transactions include management or leveraged buyouts, growth financings, recapitalizations (including dividend recapitalizations), buy-and-build strategies and acquisitions. BBH Capital Partners is based in Boston (www.bbh.com).
Investment bank BlackArch was retained by Ancor Capital Partners and BBH as their financial advisor on this transaction. BlackArch was founded in 2010 by Kelly Katterhagen, Matt Salisbury, Drew Quartapella, and Bram Hall. The firm is headquartered in Charlotte with an additional office in Houston (www.blackarchpartners.com).
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 2-17-16
