Littlejohn & Co. has agreed to acquire Brown Jordan International, a manufacturer of indoor and outdoor furniture sold to the commercial and consumer markets. The transaction is expected to close in late January 2017.
Brown Jordan International (BJI) operates four divisions – Brown Jordan, Charter, Texacraft, and Tropitone – that collectively sell a complete line of indoor and outdoor furnishings primarily for use in hospitality, leisure, multi-family, corporate, restaurant and other commercial environments. The company also sells into the consumer market but this is a sidelight to the company’s commercial operations. BJI, headquartered in St. Augustine, FL (south of Jacksonville), was founded in 1945 and today has approximately $300 million of annual sales (www.bji.com).
Littlejohn makes control and non-control investments in middle-market companies that are undergoing a fundamental change in capital structure, strategy, operations or growth. The firm invests from $50 million to $150 million of equity in middle market companies that have annual revenues of $100 million to $800 million. Littlejohn invests across a range of industries and acquires manufacturers, distributors, and service providers. The firm is currently investing from Littlejohn Fund V, L.P., which has $2 billion in capital commitments. Littlejohn is based in Greenwich, CT (www.littlejohnllc.com).
Littlejohn will acquire BJI from Crescent Capital. Crescent‘s involvement with BJI dates back to 2006 when BJI was a portfolio company of Trivest. An overleveraged balance sheet led to a 2006 out of court restructuring of the company’s debt and equity by Trust Company of the West (TCW). In January 2011, Crescent Capital spun out of TCW but retained the investment in BJI as part of its portfolio.
Crescent Capital is active in investing in below investment grade credit opportunities. Crescent was founded in 1991 by Mark Attanasio and Jean-Marc Chapus. In 1995, Crescent was acquired by TCW and rebranded as TCW’s Leveraged Finance Group. On January 1, 2011, Messrs. Attanasio and Chapus, along with the entire investment team, spun out of TCW and formed Crescent Capital Group. Today the firm has approximately $23 billion in assets under management and 145 employees. Crescent is headquartered in Los Angeles with additional offices in Boston, Chicago, New York and London (www.crescentcap.com).
Commitments for debt financing have been received from Goldman Sachs and Société Générale. Moelis & Company served as the financial advisor to Brown Jordan.
© 2016 Private Equity Professional | December 20, 2016
