MidOcean Partners
MidOcean Partners is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital investments in middle-market companies. The firm has historically focused on investments in middle market companies in four core industries including business services; consumer and leisure companies, media and niche industrial services.
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Type | Private Ownership |
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Industry | Private Equity |
Founded | February 2003 |
Founder | Ted Virtue |
Headquarters | Midtown Manhattan, New York City |
Area served | Global |
Products | Private equity funds, Leveraged buyouts |
Total assets | $8 billion[1] |
Website | www.MidOceanPartners.com |
The firm, founded in February 2003,[2] is based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City,[3] with an office in London and more than 20 investment professionals globally. MidOcean was originally formed by the managers of DB Capital Partners to acquire Deutsche Bank's late stage private equity investments in the United States and Europe in one of the largest private equity secondary transactions completed to date.
History
MidOcean Partners was formed through a management spinout transaction. A group of investors provided capital to the managers of DB Capital Partners, led by MidOcean CEO Ted Virtue, to acquire the portfolio of private equity investments they had managed at Deutsche Bank. Among the investors in the transaction were NIB Capital Private Equity (today AlpInvest Partners), HarbourVest Partners, Paul Capital Partners, Coller Capital, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and CPP Investment Board, with investments from Northwestern Mutual, The Yucaipa Companies and Presidential Life. The management spinout of MidOcean, at the time valued at €1.5 billion (over $1.8 billion) was then and is still one of the largest transactions completed in the private equity secondary market.
The spinout of MidOcean came at the same time as the spinouts of private equity groups from other leading investment banks including: JPMorgan Chase (CCMP Capital), Citigroup (Court Square Capital Partners), Morgan Stanley (Metalmark Capital) and Credit Suisse First Boston (Avista Capital Partners, Diamond Castle Holdings).
Since its inception, MidOcean has managed three private equity funds:
- MidOcean Partners – Approximately $2 billion vehicle used to house the investments acquireds from Deutsche Bank through the secondary purchase.
- MidOcean Partners Fund II – $520 million of investor commitments, primarily from investors in the original 2003 secondary transaction.
- MidOcean Partners Fund III – $1.25 billion raised as a fully independent private equity fund in 2007
Investments
Among MidOcean's investments are various business services; consumer and leisure companies, media and niche industrial services companies including:
- Casablanca Fan Company
- Center Parcs UK
- Hunter Fan Company
- Jostens
- LA Fitness (Europe) [4]—unaffiliated with American LA Fitness company
- Palace Entertainment
- Prestige Brands
- Sbarro
- Stratus Technologies
- Totes-Isotoner
- United Biscuits
- Young America Corporation
- KidKraft [5]
- LegalShield (previously known as Pre-Paid Legal)
- Travelpro Products, Inc
- Questex, a "leading B2B information services provider", acquired from Shamrock Capital in 2018[6] for a price estimated at around $180 million;[7] Questex holdings include:
- FierceMarkets Inc., a Washington, DC based electronic media company focused on online and e-mail newsletter trade publishing covering various industries.[8][9][10] Fierce-branded properties include FierceBiotech, FierceCable, FierceCEO, FierceHealthcare, FiercePharma, FierceRetail, FierceTelecom, and FierceWireless.[11][12]
- Marketplaces, including Beauty, Spa & Wellness, Hospitality, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Telecommunications & Technology and Travel[12]
Former investments
- Bushnell Corporation, sold in 2013 to Alliant Techsystems/ATK[13]
- Jenny Craig, Inc.[14]
- Water Pik, Inc. (agreed to sell: 2017)[15]
Leadership
- Ted Virtue – CEO
- Steve Shenfeld – President
- Deborah Hodges – COO & Managing Director
- Andrew Spring – CFO & Managing Director
Source:[16]
References
- "Former Deutsche Buyout Arm Raised $1 billion for New Fund." New York Times, July 19, 2006
- "MidOcean Partners to Raise $1 billion fund", eFinancial News, January 9, 2006
- "Goldman Sachs, CPPIB Lead $925M Secondary Buy."Buyouts, April 17, 2006
- "MidOcean Partners Announces Acquisition of Travelpro Group Luggage Industry Leader", PR Newswire, May 23, 2016
- Secondaries grow in stature
- 'About', company web site. Earlier, an undated figure of $11.5 billion was listed, citing "Private Equity", a company web page which no longer publishes an asset-amount figure. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
- "Credit Suisse Gets Federal Nod to Sell DLJ Merchant Banking to Coller". Dow Jones. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
- "Contact." MidOcean Partners. Retrieved on March 5, 2010.
- O'Brien, Bob (4 June 2015). "MidOcean Partners struggles to put rocky performance in past". The Deal. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- https://www.midoceanpartners.com/private-equity/portfolio/kidkraft
- Farooque, Faizan, "MidOcean buys B2B information services provider Questex", S&P Global Market Intelligence, 13 September 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- Silber, Tony. "B2B Publisher Questex Acquired By The Private-Equity Firm MidOcean Partners". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
- Selby, Shawn (January 13, 2013). "Washington area business diary for week of Jan. 14". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
- Joyce, Amy (January 12, 2003). "Unwind . . . Before You Unravel". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
- Selby, Shawn (February 12, 2013). "Washington area business diary for week of Feb. 13". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
- Questex LLC (December 12, 2018). "Home - Questex".
- Questex main web page. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
- de la Merced, Michael J., "Bushnell, Maker of Gun Accessories, Is Sold for $985 Million", New York Times Deal Book, September 5, 2013. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
- "HIG becomes Jenny Craig's latest PE backer | PitchBook". pitchbook.com. Retrieved 2020-02-09.
- Vasquez, Justina, "Church & Dwight to Buy Water Pik for $1 Billion" (subscription required), Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2017. Dental equipment and showerhead company. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
- "Leadership". Official Website. Retrieved 2 June 2020.