Driven Brands, a portfolio company of Harvest Partners, has been sold to Roark Capital Group. Harvest Partners acquired Driven Brands in December 2011.
Driven Brands is a leading franchisor in the automotive aftermarket services industry. Driven’s service brands include Meineke Car Care Centers (Meineke) and Maaco Collision Repair and Auto Painting (Maaco). The company has over 1,700 stores across North America. Driven Brands is headquartered in Charlotte, NC (www.drivenbrands.com).
Harvest Partners currently manages approximately $2 billion of equity and structured capital and is investing its sixth private equity fund. Harvest targets investments in companies with $20 million to $75 million of EBITDA and total enterprise values of $100 million to $750 million. Sectors of interest include industrial & energy services; manufacturing & distribution; consumer & business services; and healthcare services. The firm was founded in 1981 and is based in New York and, with the opening of the new office, in Palo Alto as well (www.harvestpartners.com).
Roark Capital Group, the buyer of Driven Brands, invests in consumer and business services companies, with a focus on the franchise, food and restaurant, specialty retail, environmental services, waste management, and marketing services sectors. In December 2014 Roark held a final close of Roark Capital Partners IV LP at its hard cap of $2.5 billion. Since founding in 2001, Roark has raised over $6 billion of equity capital commitments. The firm, headquartered in Atlanta, takes its name from Howard Roark, the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” (www.roarkcapital.com).
Harris Williams & Co. served as the exclusive financial advisor to Harvest Partners. The transaction was led by Joe Conner, Jason Bass and Jershon Jones of Harris Williams & Co.’s Transportation and Logistics (T&L) Group and Chris Williams and Jonathan Meredith of the firm’s Richmond office.
“After our recent success with Caliber Collision Centers, ABRA, Mister Car Wash and Dent Wizard, the sale of Driven Brands represents another marquee transaction for Harris Williams & Co. in the automotive aftermarket services sector,” said Mr. Jones, a Director at Harris Williams & Co. “This transaction is another example of the firm’s T&L Group leveraging deep sector expertise for its clients. Given the strong M&A environment and momentum in the automotive aftermarket, the firm expects to continue seeing high levels of activity in the sector.”
Harris Williams & Co. (www.harriswilliams.com), a member of The PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE:PNC), is a middle market investment bank focused on the advisory needs of clients worldwide. Harris Williams provides sell-side and acquisition advisory, restructuring advisory, board advisory, private placements and capital markets advisory services.
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 4-20-15
