For Court Square, $1.1 Billion Sale of CompuCom is Gravy

Court Square Capital Partners is exiting CompuCom Systems after more than five years, but the PE firm has apparently already gotten its money back.

The New York private equity firm agreed to sell CompuCom Systems to Thomas H. Lee Partners yesterday. Financial terms were not announced but THL is paying about $1.1 billion in cash, according to a person familiar with the matter. Citigroup Global Markets Inc, J.P. Morgan, BMO Capital Markets and Jefferies Finance are providing committed financing.

Dallas-based CompuCom, an IT services and solutions specialist, produced $2.3 billion of gross revenue last year. It employs 11,500 associates globally.

Court Square acquired CompuCom in September 2007 for about $628 million. Court Square and company management invested $197 million cash into the deal, according to a Moody’s report from that time.

It looks like Court Square got its investment back last year. In September, CompuCom took out a $635 million covenant-lite dividend recap loan, according to Thomson Reuters Loan Pricing Corp. CompuCom used the loan to pay out a special dividend of about $211 million to its shareholders, including Court Square, Moody’s said in September.

The sale comes as Court Square is out fundraising for its latest fund. The PE firm is seeking $3 billion for Court Square Capital Partners III LP. The fund had collected $2.5 billion as of January, according to an SEC filing. First Avenue is listed as a placement agent for the pool, as well as LarrainVial, of Santiago.

Court Square’s prior fund raised $3.1 billion in 2007.

Officials for Court Square and CompuCom couldn’t be reached for comment.

BMO Capital Markets and Jefferies advised THL, while Citigroup provided financial advice to CompuCom/Court Square. Ed Wehle led the deal team at Citi that included Ethan Zweig and Hugo Doetsch. Gerrie Sinatra of Dechert along with Ken Young, Adam Rosenthal, Victoria Alff, Allyson Levy, Edward Lemanowicz and Ken Wang provided legal advice to CompuCom/Court Square. Weil, Gotshal & Manges was the attorney for THL.

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