GE Antares, a unit of GE Capital, announced today it is serving as
administrative agent on a $138 million senior secured credit facility to
support the acquisition of Bendon, Inc. by Irving Place Capital (IPC).
GE Capital Markets served as joint lead arranger and joint bookrunner on
this facility.
Established in 2002 and headquartered in Ashland, OH, Bendon is a
leading provider of non-licensed and licensed children’s coloring and
activity products. Bendon sells products such as coloring and activity
books, kits, sets and play packs, puzzles and other early childhood
development games.
“GE Antares’ willingness to underwrite the full commitment and their
large hold position made them an excellent financing partner on this
transaction,” said John Howard, CEO at IPC. “We continue to benefit from
our relationships with the GE Antares team.”
“A proven market leader, Bendon is a welcome addition to the GE Antares
portfolio,“ said Gina Provenzale, senior vice president of GE Antares.
“Bendon’s longstanding relationships with their customers and product
innovation position them for continued growth, organically and through
acquisitions. We look forward to supporting management and IPC going
forward.”
About Bendon, Inc.
Based in Ashland, Ohio, Bendon is a leading designer and producer of
children’s coloring and activity products in the United States. The
company has a broad non-licensed and licensed product portfolio,
including the world’s most popular children’s characters and brands,
which is distributed into a variety of different retailing partners
representing more than 80,000 points of distribution in North America.
For more information please go to: www.bendonpub.com.
About Irving Place Capital
Based in New York City, IPC is a middle-market private equity firm that
invests in buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth capital opportunities.
The firm focuses on making control or entrepreneur-driven investments in
retail and consumer, industrial and packaging companies where it can
apply its substantial operating and strategic resources and expertise to
enhance value. Since its formation in 1997, IPC has been an investor in
60 companies and has raised over $4 billion of equity capital, including
its current $2.7 billion institutional fund. For more information please
go to: www.irvingplacecapital.com.
About GE Antares Capital
GE Antares is a unit of GE Capital. With offices in Atlanta, Chicago,
Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and San Francisco, GE Antares is the
leading middle market lender, offering a “one-stop” source for GE’s
lending and other services offered to middle market private equity
sponsors. Providing more than $123 billion in financing over the past
five years alone, GE Capital was named 2014 Lender of the Year by Mergers
& Acquisitions. GE Antares was also recognized by Private
Debt Investor and Private Equity International as 2013 Lender
of the Year, North America and Mid-Cap Lender of the Year, North
America, respectively. For more information, visit geantares.com.
GE Capital offers customers around the globe an array of financial
products, services and insights to help them grow their businesses. For
more information, visit www.gecapital.com
or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital).
GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t
and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings
together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can.
In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is
inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the
world. www.ge.com
Copyright Business Wire 2015