Clearlake Capital has acquired PrimeSport, a provider of sports related travel and hospitality events.
PrimeSport is a sports, travel, and event management company that offers tickets, corporate and fan travel packages, and hospitality events for corporations, professional sports teams, and fans. PrimeSport maintains long-term official partnerships with sports teams and events that give PrimeSport’s customers access to sought after sporting events, including the NCAA Final Four, BCS National Championship, Super Bowl, Daytona 500, and many other events. The company is based in Atlanta (www.primesport.com).
Clearlake invests in special situations such as corporate divestitures, recapitalizations, buyouts, restructurings, turnarounds and minority equity investments. Sectors of interest include business services; communication; consumer products and retail; defense and public safety; energy and power; healthcare; industrials; media; and technology. Clearlake currently manages approximately $1.4 billion of equity capital. The firm was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in New York (www.clearlakecapital.com).
Prospect Capital provided a senior secured floating rate loan facility to support the acquisition of PrimeSport by Clearlake Capital. “Clearlake selected Prospect over multiple lenders based on Prospect’s creative and flexible financing structure designed to support PrimeSport’s growth strategy,” said Behdad Eghbali, a founding partner of Clearlake.
Prospect invests in private and micro-cap public businesses located in the US and Canada that have from $3 million to $30 million of EBITDA. Investment structures include: senior debt; unitranche debt; 2nd lien and mezzanine debt; and “one stop” debt and equity. The firm invests in an array of industries and is effectively industry agnostic. Prospect Capital is headquartered in New York (www.prospectstreet.com).
“Prospect is excited to complete this inaugural transaction with Clearlake,” said Jason Wilson, a Managing Director of Prospect Capital Management. “We pulled out all the stops to support Clearlake’s acquisition of PrimeSport, a company with a compelling value proposition for professional and collegiate sports leagues, teams, and fans involved in some of the biggest sporting events in the world.”
Lincoln International (www.lincolninternational.com) acted as the exclusive financial advisor to PrimeSport, working closely with the company’s management team and shareholders throughout the sale process. This included providing advisory expertise and managing the preparatory, buyer coordination and contact, due diligence and final negotiation phases of the transaction. Lincoln International has 15 offices in the Americas, Asia and Europe and is headquartered in Chicago.
© 2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 1-14-14