Lawrence Aragon
Franklin Square Capital Partners has hired Lewis Katz as chief business development officer. Katz was previously president of Blackboard Advisors, a management consulting firm he founded. Based in Philadelphia, Franklin Square is an alternative investment manager with $16.8 billion in total assets as December 31, 2015.
AUA Private Equity Partners LLC announced that it has acquired Noga Dairies Inc, a manufacturer of yogurts and other other dairy products, as an add-on acquisition to Raymundos Food Group LLC, a refrigerated foods platform. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Private equity firm Pegasus Capital Advisors LP has invested $53 million in PanTheryx Inc, a medical nutrition company based in Boulder, Colorado. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. PanTheryx said it would use the capital to launch a product to treat infectious diarrhea, for ongoing research and development and possible acquisitions.
Trivest Partners today announced the sale of Take 5 Oil Change Inc to Roark Capital portfolio company Driven Brands. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Trivest said the sale “represents the sixth exit event in Trivest Fund IV and is one of its most successful investments to date.” Trivest bought Take 5 from the company’s founder in 2011. Under its ownership, Take 5 “nearly tripled its store count, sales and profitability,” Trivest said in a statment.
Dallas-based private equity firm Trive Capital announced that it has recapitalized Iowa Northern Railway Company, joining with the company’s senior management on the deal. The size of the investmet was undisclosed. Based in Cedar Rapids, IANR operates about 250 miles of track in eastern and northern Iowa, serving regional customers in the grain, fertilizer and specialty chemical markets. The railroad was built in the 1870s and has been owned and operated by the Sabin family since 1994.
CapX Partners announced that it has provided $7.4 million in debt financing to Two Twenty Records Management, enabling the data storage outsourcing provider to refinance its current debt facility and access working capital. Two Twenty, based in Edison, New Jersey, is owned by Topspin LBO and AUA Private Equity Partners, which bought the company in October 2010.
The Riverside Company bought a minority stake in Bentley Laboratories LLC for an undisclosed amount. Based in Edison, New Jersey, Bentley provides outsourced manufacuturing for beauty products and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Managing Partner Hal Greenberg and Partner Michael Kessler led the deal for Riverside, along with Vice President Jay Reynolds and Associate Director of Origination Cheryl Strom. Riverside was advised by Loeb & Loeb (legal) and WeiserMazars (accounting), and Bentley was advised by Carriage Hill Inc (corporate finance) and Giordano Halleran & Ciesla (legal).
Livingstone, a Chicago-based mid-market M&A and debt advisory firm, announced that it has closed a new credit facility for Premium Inspection & Testing Inc, a portfolio company of Calvert Street Capital Partners. First Midwest Bank and Patriot Capital provided the financing to support the portfolio company’s recapitalization of Capitol Ultrasonics LLC.
Torys LLP's Michael Akkawi, Sophia Tolias and Guy Berman believe key dynamics of Canada's private equity market in 2015 tell us a lot about emerging trends in 2016. In a PE Hub Canada exclusive, they argue how a more competitive market environment, new PE strategies and other factors are shaping deal activity. Neville Jugnauth and Derek Flaman also share their insights on the new deal opportunities in Canada’s energy sector.
Torys LLP has released its much-anticipated Private Equity in Focus 2016 report. It considers how private equity deal-making in 2015 has set the stage for this year's transactions. Torys' report helps investment pros peer into what lies ahead in 2016 through three levels of focus: in the markets, in the deals, and in the terms.