MidOcean Partners and Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. have agreed to sell their portfolio company Totes-Isotoner to Investcorp and Freeman Spogli & Co.
Totes-Isotoner is a world leader in the design, marketing and distribution of functional accessories including umbrellas, gloves, hats, scarves, rubber footwear and slippers. In 1997, Totes and Isotoner merged to form Totes Isotoner. Today, the company has over 1,200 employees and is headquartered in Cincinnati with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Manila (www.totes-isotoner.com).
Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. first invested in Totes-Isotoner in September 2004 and MidOcean invested in the company in January 2007. During the term of ownership, the company’s product offerings were expanded through five add-on acquisitions including Northern Cap and Glove, Acorn Products, Manzella, Just Sheepskin and Grandoe.
“Totes-Isotoner is the market leading provider of branded accessory products including umbrellas, rainwear, gloves, sandals and slippers in the US and Europe,” said Doug Gernert, Totes-Isotoner’s President and CEO. “I am very proud of what MidOcean and the Totes team have accomplished during our partnership. We have completed five acquisitions and successfully expanded our products and offerings during our partnership.”
MidOcean Partners is a private equity firm focused on the middle market. Industries of interest include consumer, business and media services, and industrial services. The firm has offices in New York and London (www.midoceanpartners.com).
“MidOcean targets investments in companies like Totes-Isotoner that are leaders in their markets with where we see multiple opportunities for growth,” said Ted Virtue, MidOcean’s CEO. “With its leading brands, strong operating team and sophisticated distribution platform, we identified totes as an excellent platform for add-on acquisitions in the branded consumer accessories space. MidOcean was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to partner with Doug and his team as we applied MidOcean’s growth methodology to the Totes-Isotoner platform.”
Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. (BRS) invests in middle market consumer goods and services businesses and has $1.4 billion of committed capital under management. Since 1996, BRS has purchased over 40 portfolio companies for aggregate consideration of over $6.4 billion. In addition, BRS portfolio companies have completed approximately $1.9 billion of add-on acquisitions. Prior to forming the firm, the founders of BRS were in the financial acquisition business at Citicorp Venture Capital where they closed 25 transactions with aggregate transaction values totalling $5.8 billion. The firm is based in New York (www.brs.com).
Investcorp invests in mid-size companies operating in an array of industry sectors that have total enterprise values of between $200 million and $1 billion and are located in North America or Western Europe. As at June 30, 2013, Investcorp had $10.5 billion in total assets under management. The group has offices in New York, London, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (www.investcorp.com).
Freeman Spogli invests in middle market consumer and distribution companies. Since its founding in 1983, the firm has invested over $3.1 billion in 49 portfolio companies with an aggregate transaction value of $19 billion. Freeman Spogli has offices in Los Angeles and New York (www.freemanspogli.com).
Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Kirkland & Ellis acted as the financial and legal advisors to MidOcean Partners. Bingham McCutchen and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher acted as the legal advisors to Investcorp and Freeman Spogli.
© 2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 4-23-14
