GE Antares, a unit of GE Capital, announced today it is serving as
administrative agent on a $124.5 million senior secured credit facility
to support the acquisition of Area Wide Protective (AWP) by The
Riverside Company. GE Capital Markets served as joint lead arranger and
joint bookrunner on this facility.
Headquartered in Kent, OH and founded in 1993, AWP offers temporary
traffic management solutions to a variety of customers, including
utilities, utility contractors and telecommunications companies.
“We have a long-standing relationship with the team at GE Antares and
are happy to have worked with them on this transaction. Their industry
expertise and certainty of execution makes them an ideal financing
partner,” said Chris Jones, partner of The Riverside Company.
“Riverside’s operational heritage and expertise combined with AWP’s deep
customer loyalty will pave the way for an even better organization,”
said Brian Polomsky, a managing director with GE Antares. "We are
excited to support this acquisition and look forward to supporting
management and Riverside as they grow.”
About Area Wide Protective
Area Wide Protective (AWP) is America's Traffic Control Leader,
providing safe, professional, and comprehensive traffic management to a
diversified client base throughout the Eastern United States. Daily, AWP
deploys over 1,000 traffic control professionals to private contractors
and major public utilities throughout 17 states, from Michigan to New
Jersey, and South to Florida. A company-owned fleet of over 800
fully-equipped, late model pick-up trucks and specialty vehicles ensures
that AWP delivers safe, compliant, and on-time traffic control equipment
and services to every job site. For more information visit www.awptrafficsafety.com.
About The Riverside Company
The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm focused on
acquiring and investing in growing businesses valued at up to $300
million. Since its founding in 1988, Riverside has invested in more than
390 transactions. The firm’s international portfolio includes more than
80 companies. (http://www.riversidecompany.com
or http://www.riversideeurope.com)
About GE Antares Capital
On June 9, 2015, GE
announced it signed a definitive agreement to sell its U.S. Sponsor
Finance business, which includes GE Antares, to Canada Pension Plan
Investment Board (CPPIB). The transaction is expected to close in the
third quarter of 2015. After the closing, the business will operate as
Antares Capital.
GE Antares is a unit of GE Capital. With offices in Atlanta, Chicago,
Los Angeles, New York, Norwalk, CT 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.
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
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