Sunrise Capital Shines With AIRWALK Buyout –

Sunrise Capital Partners, L.P., an investment fund affiliated with investment bank Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, last month purchased AIRWALK International, LLC , a designer and marketer of youth footwear, apparel and snowboarding products.

Sunrise Capital Managing Partner David Preiser declined to disclose terms of the deal, although he said Boalsburg, Pa.-based AIRWALK fits well into the New York firm’s strategy to acquire companies with solid underlying fundamentals who are in need of capital.

AIRWALK’s chief executive officer and president Peter Goehrig said talk about selling the company began to surface last year when owner George Yohn decided to phase himself out of the company. Mr. Yohn, who is in his early 70s, hired Mr. Goehrig to refinance AIRWALK last July.

Mr. Goehrig said several strategic buyers have shown interest in the company in the last six months and the decision to sell now is a result of a lack of capital, and the owner’s decision not to reinvest his own money in the company.

Mr. Preiser said his group was attracted to AIRWALK because it is an established international brand that needs a new, clean balance sheet and augmented management in order to grow and be restored, he said.

Sunrise Capital is a distressed private equity fund with more than $250 million of committed capital. The fund focuses on acquisitions of middle-market companies with financial problems or other challenges. Mr. Preiser said Sunrise Capital usually holds its investments two to five years before selling them.