Thomas H. Lee Partners announced today that it has signed an agreement under which it will acquire a majority stake in Party City Holdings, a party supplies retailer, in a recapitalization transaction valued at $2.7 billion. Advent International, Berkshire Partners, Weston Presidio and company management, which currently own Party City, will continue to hold significant minority stakes following the recapitalization.
“Party City leads the $10 billion retail party goods industry in terms of product selection and retail network. We look forward to working closely with the team at Party City to maximize its scale and vertically integrated business model to continue to grow its business,” said Todd Abbrecht, a managing director at Thomas H. Lee Partners.
Party City designs, manufactures, contracts for manufacture and distributes party goods, including paper and plastic tableware, metallic balloons, accessories, novelties, gifts and stationery. Party City also operates retail party goods and social expressions supply stores in the United States under the names Party City, Halloween City and Factory Card & Party Outlet. Party City’s decorated party supply products are available in over 40,000 retail outlets worldwide, as well as in its own retail network of approximately 825 permanent party superstores and 400 temporary Halloween locations. The company also sells direct to customers through its e-commerce website, PartyCity.com. Party City is based in Rockaway, NJ (www.partycity.com).
Thomas H. Lee, founded in 1974, is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the United States. Industries of interest include business and information services; consumer products and retail; financial services; health care; industrial; and media & communications. Since its founding, THL has raised approximately $20 billion of equity capital and invested in more than 100 businesses with an aggregate purchase price of more than $150 billion. The firm is based in Boston, MA (www.thl.com).
BofA Merrill Lynch and Moelis & Company acted as financial advisors and Weil, Gotshal & Manges acted as legal advisor to THL. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank acted as financial advisors to Party City. Ropes & Gray acted as legal advisor to Advent International, Berkshire Partners, Weston Presidio and Party City.
