LMI'S MICHAEL LYONS FEATURED IN THE DEAL'S BLOG AND ONLINE VIDEO
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Lincolnshire and American Capital Awarded "Deal of the Year" by Los Angeles Venture Capital Group
Bethesda, MD – American Capital Strategies Ltd. announced today that its Los Angeles office and Lincolnshire Management Inc. have won the Private Equity Deal of the Year Award from the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) for their partnership in Bankruptcy Management Solutions Inc. (BMS). Lincolnshire was the equity sponsor on the transaction. American Capital was the agent, a lender and co-invested in the equity with Lincolnshire. The award was presented at LAVA’s annual awards dinner on Thursday, January 18.
“We are delighted that our success with Lincolnshire and Bankruptcy Management Solutions has been recognized by the Los Angeles Venture Association,” said Ira Wagner, American Capital Chief Operating Officer. “This transaction is an excellent example of our ability to successfully partner with an equity sponsor and contribute to the growth of a portfolio company.”
American Capital has invested directly and through its funds under management $6.7 billion in 2006, $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006 and $454 million year to date. Not including funds under management, American Capital has invested approximately $5.1 billion in 2006, $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006 and $430 million year to date.
“We were pleased to support Lincolnshire throughout our investment in Bankruptcy Management Solutions,” said Frank Do, American Capital Managing Director. “Our cumulative investments in BMS were highly successful, resulting in an outstanding return for American Capital. We’re delighted to have been a part of its growth."
THE ALASKA CLUB PARTNERS WITH LINCOLNSHIRE MGMT
ANCHORAGE, AK – The Alaska Club co-founders and partners Tom Behan and Andrew Eker today announced the completion of an agreement with leading private equity firm Lincolnshire Management, Inc. to provide growth capital that will allow the health and fitness club to further expand its geographic footprint and offer enhanced services to its members. The Alaska Club will continue to be operated by the current management team and be headquartered in Anchorage. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"When my partner, Tom Behan and I were looking for a new investment partner for The Alaska Club, we searched for investors who had an appreciation for what we had developed and shared our vision for continuing in the same direction," said Andrew Eker, retiring President of The Alaska Club. "Lincolnshire Management impressed us with their commitment to our shared vision for the future of the clubs."
Lincolnshire Management, Inc. is a leading middle market private equity firm headquartered in New York. This transaction is Lincolnshire's first investment in the health and fitness industry and its first investment in Alaska. The firm has a successful track record of investing in sports and athletic equipment companies including, Prince Sports and Riddell Sports, where they partnered with the management teams and employees to build significant value.
"We are excited to have the current management of The Alaska Club as our partners moving forward," said Kate Lehman, a Principal at Lincolnshire. "Their expertise and passion for the fitness industry combined with the resources of Lincolnshire Management, will deliver exceptional value to the Alaska community."
"The clubs are now poised to deliver even greater value to our members," said Robert Brewster, President of The Alaska Club. "Our joint vision is going to be very beneficial for the communities we serve."
LMI SELLS PRINCE SPORTS
NEW YORK– Lincolnshire Management, Inc., a leading middle-market private equity firm, today announced the sale of Prince Sports, a leading global developer and marketer of racquets and accessories for tennis, squash and racquetball, to Nautic Partners, LLC. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Bordentown, New Jersey, Prince is a premiere brand in racquet sports, having pioneered such revolutionary designs as the "oversized" and "longbody" racquets as well as the patented O-Port technology used in the O3 tennis racquets. The success of Prince in tennis has grown over the years to include a full range of products targeting all major racquet sports including, squash, racquetball and badminton. The Company's brands, which include PRINCE (tennis, squash and badminton) and EKTELON (racquetball), consistently place among the top global racquet sports brands. In tennis, Prince enjoys strong brand recognition in all of the world's largest markets including North America, South America, Asia and Europe and Prince racquets are used by many of the world's leading tennis professionals. As part of its global reach, the company maintains operations in the United Kingdom, Italy and Taiwan.
“Prince is a great brand and a fabulous success story for management and Lincolnshire,” said Mike Lyons, Senior Managing Director, at Lincolnshire Management. “We teamed up with management and acquired the company from Benetton in 2003 and immediately set out to improve operations, realign the worldwide sales and distribution network and reinvigorate the brand with cutting edge new products.”
“We returned the company to its roots,” added Allan Weinstein, Managing Director at Lincolnshire, “by catering to the frequent player, the teaching professional community and driving market share growth with innovative technology and responsive customer service.” George Napier, CEO of Prince, said, “ it was a great partnership with the professionals at Lincolnshire. We not only accomplished the goals we set out four years ago, but we set the stage for the next phase of growth. The entire management team is very excited about the continued future success of Prince.”
Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisor to Lincolnshire Management. Golenbock Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe LLP served as their legal counsel.
Boston College Center for Asset Management Private Equity Panel Discussion
In June of this year T.J. Maloney organized a panel to discuss alternative investments at the Boston College Center for Asset Management Conference. The results proved to be highly entertaining and informative, the distinguished panelists held nothing back and brought a refreshing level of frankness and insight as they weighed their respective short and long term visions of the alternative investments, P/E world.
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LINCOLNSHIRE MANAGEMENT SELLS EXCELSIOR RADIO NETWORKS TO TRITON MEDIA GROUP
New York - Lincolnshire Management, a leading middle-market private equity firm, today announced the sale of Excelsior Radio Networks and it’s subsidiaries to Triton Media Group, LLC, a portfolio company of Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. Financial terms were not disclosed. Lincolnshire maintained an equity position going forward.
Excelsior owns Dial Global and MJI Interactive and is the leading independent network radio company. Dial-Global (www.dial-global.com) provides sales representation services to over 50 national radio production companies, producing over 100 different programs and services. Dial Global’s programming division produces and syndicates more than 25 music programs and prep services, including the Dial Global 24/7 format business. Programs and prep services include “Backtrax USA,” “Rick Dees Weekly Top 40,” “The Countdown” with Walt “Baby” Love and Walt “Baby” Love’s “Gospel Traxx,” “The Ross Brittain Report,” “Whitney Allen’s Big Time”, and “Short Bus” imaging services, among others. MJI Interactive (www.mjiinteractive.com) provides affiliated radio stations with daily music news, website content services in nine formats and software tools.
Neal Schore is President and CEO of Triton Media Group. Spencer Brown will continue as Chief Executive Officer of Excelsior and David Landau and Ken Williams will remain as co-CEO/Presidents of Dial Global. “Lincolnshire has been a great partner for us,” said Brown. “They provided critical support, in terms of both capital and collaborative thinking, to enable us to complete several add-on acquisitions during the period and grow the business. The acquisition of Westwood One’s 24/7 Networks is a great example of our ability to identify beneficial additions and Lincolnshire’s ability to accelerate value creation.”
“We invested in Excelsior in large part because of the highly talented and professional management team and their ability to drive growth in an ever-changing industry.” said Mike Lyons, a Senior Managing Director at Lincolnshire. “Their success will continue as they team up with an equally talented group from Triton.”
“We went into the transaction believing that Excelsior was well positioned to grow and become a dominant player in the network space,” Michael Lee, a Principal at Lincolnshire added, “We were able to achieve those goals and the management team did an outstanding job attracting new producers, growing the advertising base and establishing a real foothold on the interactive side of the business. We think the company will be an increasingly powerful force as the radio landscape continues to evolve. We’re very excited to continue to be a part of Triton going forward, and we think the company will be an increasingly powerful force as the radio landscape continues to evolve.”
Golenbock Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe LLP served as legal counsel to Lincolnshire Management.
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