This week Insight Equity closed its $61.3 million take-private of Meadow Valley, a Phoenix-based construction contractor and construction material supplier. The firm struck the deal back in July, and even after the disaster that was Q4, Insight Equity and its lenders managed to close the deal at its original price, terms and conditions. Not to say Insight Equity didn't cry "MAC." Connor Searcy, Partner with Insight Equity, said, "We felt that there was a material adverse change in the business, but we still closed on the original terms and conditions from July. When we commit to a deal we get it done." Capital One and LBC provided financing for the deal. Insight Equity's new mezzanine fund contributed as well. Which leads me to the following cluster of fundraising updates.
Right Start, a Calabasas, Calif.-based specialty retailer for the prenatal to preschool years, on Tuesday filed for bankruptcy protection. Right Start is a portfolio company of Hancock Park Associates. www.rightstart.com
(Reuters) – Bruno’s Supermarkets LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an Alabama court on Thursday to restructure business operations, and said it may pursue a sale of all its assets. The company, which owns and operates Bruno’s and Food World grocery stores, also named Jim Grady as Chief Restructuring Officer to replace former […]
Granite Equity has acquired a majority stake in GEOTEK Inc., a Stewartville, Minn.-based maker of reinforced fiberglass pultrusion products for the electric utility and animal containment markets. No financial terms were disclosed. GEOTEK co-founders Conrad Fingerson and Amy Donahoe will retire from daily operations and join the company’s board, while Derek Mazula, who assisted Granite Equity on the deal, will join GEOTEK as its new president.
Green Courte Partners has extended its previously-announced cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of American Land Lease Inc. (NYSE: ANL) until 5pm on Tuesday, February 17. Green Courte is offering $14.20 per share.
NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) – The U.S. government has retained two law firms with extensive bankruptcy experience and the investment bank Rothschild to advise officials on the taxpayer-backed restructuring of General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Chrysler LLC, a person with direct knowledge of the work said. New York law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP was […]
Sun Capital has a $1.1 billion* hedge fund called Sun Capital Securities. Its stated strategy had been to take non-controlling equity stakes in public companies. To date, the fund has basically been a zero. But even though it's fully invested, the firm isn't content to passively plod along. Rather, Sun has revamped the fund into a distressed debt investor. The majority of the firm's recent round of 23 layoffs were a result of this shift, a person close to the firm said. (Eight more were performance-related.) But that presents a bit of a conundrum for the existing portfolio, which includes minority investments such companies as Berkline BenchCraft Holdings and Souper Salad.
Another Section 363 purchase-turned-Chapter 22: Fortunoff, the upscale jewelery store, has filed for bankruptcy just 10 months after NRDC Equity Partners purchased it out of bankruptcy. (A few weeks ago the same thing happened to Versa Capital, with portfolio company American Restaurant Group.) Can’t say we didn’t expect it, though. The buyout strategy always seemed like a stretch: NRDC stated it would not close a single Fortunoff store. It also purchased the company for more than $80 million and only put down $10 million in equity. How could that possibly save a retailer that had simply stopped paying its bills and had already exhausted more than one sale-leaseback? Upon closer examination, you have to wonder if it’s a sign of things to come for NRDC’s portfolio. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal ran a perplexing story about Richard Baker, the head of NRDC and son of successful real estate investor Robert Baker. The article describes Baker as
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. regional retailer Fortunoff filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said it will try to sell the business but if it cannot it will close its doors. The company, which sells jewelry, dinnerware and furniture in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, began suffering a “severe liquidity […]
Vendor loans, equity swaps, all-stock combinations, and sovereign wealth funds are going to be facilitating M&A in 2009 proposed a panel of experts at Acquisitions Monthly’s Webinar this morning. “Vendor financing used to be the last resort to fill a gap but now we’re seeing deals where it is the only financing,” said Brian McKay, co-head of European M&A, Houlihan Lokey. The increasing tendency of vendors to staple 2.5x or 3x of leverage to an asset in order to open up a sale to private equity firms was “a remarkable phenomenon” he said.