Antares Capital was the administrative agent, lead arranger and bookrunner on a senior secured credit facility to support the acquisition last month of Safety Holdings (DBA SambaSafety) by ABRY Partners. The selling shareholders of SambaSafety were Cerca Group and Ticonderoga Private Equity which had acquired the company in November 2011.
SambaSafety is a provider of cloud-based data services targeted at unsafe driving behavior. Customers include employers, insurance companies, background screeners and fleet management companies. The information is used to identify and address unsafe driving behavior to allow insurance carriers to accurately price risk throughout the lifecycle of insurance policies. SambaSafety is led by its CEO Richard Crawford and is based in Albuquerque (www.SambaSafety.com).
Antares Capital is a provider of debt and equity financing for middle-market, private equity-backed transactions. The firm has provided more than $120 billion in financing over the past five years and has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Norwalk (Connecticut) and Toronto (www.antares.com). Antares was sold by GE Capital in August 2015 to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
“Antares’ flexibility and strong presence in the technology space made them a great partner on this transaction,” said Nathan Ott, principle for ABRY Partners.
ABRY invests in the media, communications, and business and information sectors. The firm is currently managing $4.3 billion of total capital and investing out of a $1.9 billion private equity fund, a $950 million senior equity fund and a $1.5 billion senior debt fund. ABRY was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Boston (www.abry.com).
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 5-3-16
