Vestar Capital Partners Agrees to Sell Woodstream to Bansk Group
NEW YORK and LANCASTER, Pa., Oct. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vestar Capital Partners, a leading U.S. middle-market private equity firm, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Woodstream, a leading manufacturer and marketer of branded pest and animal control products, to Bansk Group. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Woodstream is a North-American leader in pest and animal control, electronic animal containment, and lawn and garden products, under brands such as Victor®, Terro®, Dynatrap®, Safer®, Havahart®, Mosquito Magnet®, Perky-Pet®, and Zareba®. Its products are sold at more than 100,000 retail locations and online. Headquartered in Lancaster, PA, Woodstream has manufacturing operations in Lititz, PA and Knoxville, TN and a broad distribution footprint with strategically located facilities across North America.
During Vestar's ownership, the Company significantly increased its strategic focus on the pest and animal control segment of its portfolio, which included divesting and discontinuing certain non-core assets, and acquiring DynaTrap, a leading provider of flying insect traps, last year. Under the leadership of CEO Miguel Nistal and his management team, who will remain with Woodstream post-close, the Company invested behind meaningful operational improvements, developed industry-leading innovation, and enhanced its e-commerce capabilities.
"Woodstream has achieved double-digit growth in sales and has become a more strategic, consumer-driven organization over the last five years with Vestar's support, but there's still more to be done," said Mr. Nistal. "Our strategy of investing behind product innovation has put the company on a strong growth trajectory, and I am grateful to the Woodstream management team, our Board of Directors and the Vestar partners for their dedication to the company. It's an exciting time at Woodstream, and we look forward to our next chapter under Bansk's ownership."
"We view Woodstream as an attractive long term platform in the growing and on-trend pest and animal control category," said Brian O'Connor, Senior Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Bansk. "We look forward to working with Miguel and the management team to accelerate the investment behind the business to take advantage of the compelling market opportunity."
"Miguel and his management team provided expert leadership that helped transform Woodstream from a disparate collection of assets into a strategic portfolio of branded pest and animal control solutions," said Winston Song, Managing Director at Vestar. "We believe Woodstream will continue to flourish under Miguel and the Bansk Group, and we wish them the best of luck."
Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as the legal advisor and Goldman Sachs and William Blair co-led the transaction for Woodstream and Vestar. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as the legal advisor and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC as the financial advisor to Bansk, and Ares Management Corporation provided the committed financing for the transaction.
About Woodstream
Woodstream is a leading manufacturer and marketer of a broad portfolio of branded pest control, electronic animal containment, and lawn & garden products, under brands such as Victor®, Terro®, DynaTrap®, Safer®, Havahart®, Mosquito Magnet®, Perky-Pet®, and Zareba® , among others. The company's products, which have leading market share positions within their respective segments, are sold at more than 100,000 retail locations and to professional pest control providers throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other international markets. For more information, please visit https://www.woodstream.com/.
About Bansk Group
Bansk is a private investment group focused on growth companies and has approximately $1.5 billion in assets under management. Bansk was founded by Bart Becht, the former CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, who is also a Senior Partner and the Chairman of the Group.
About Vestar Capital Partners
Vestar Capital Partners is a leading U.S. middle-market private equity firm specializing in management buyouts and growth capital investments. Vestar invests and collaborates with incumbent management teams and private owners to build long-term enterprise value, with a focus on Consumer, Business & Technology Services and Healthcare. Since its founding in 1988, Vestar funds have invested $7 billion in 83 companies – as well as more than 200 add-on acquisitions – with a total value of approximately $50 billion. For more information on Vestar, please visit www.vestarcapital.com.
Contacts:
Lambert & Co.
Jennifer Hurson
(845) 507-0571
[email protected]
Caroline Luz
(203) 656-2829
[email protected]
IRI Acquires Leading Supply Chain Analytics Provider, RSi
CHICAGO — Oct. 8, 2020 — IRI®, a global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, CPG, retail and media companies, today announced that it has acquired Retail Solutions, Inc. (RSi), the leading provider of supply chain solutions for CPG manufacturers and retailers. The addition of RSi’s solutions to the industry-leading IRI Liquid Data® technology platform will offer the industry’s most comprehensive supply chain solution, as well as the largest repository of de-identified and anonymous consumer data assets in the CPG industry, delivering long-term increased value and impact to clients.
“The acquisition of RSi builds upon IRI’s long track record of continuous investment in technology, solutions and data assets,” said Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer, IRI. “IRI remains laser-focused on serving the CPG and retail industries with innovative solutions that help our clients address their most challenging issues to deliver highly differentiated capabilities and impact to clients. The investment in RSi to enhance our supply chain optimization capabilities is a direct response to our clients’ needs as they navigate disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Baljit Dail, president of IRI Global, added, “Optimizing supply chain through better end-to-end visibility, efficiency and execution has never been more important to retailers and manufacturers across the CPG landscape. The addition of RSi’s leading solutions to our broader portfolio of offerings will further enhance our robust capabilities and enable retailers and manufacturers to drive tangible ROI and capitalize on opportunities in a dynamic environment.”
RSi’s proven products and solutions have been used by more than three-fourths of the world’s 50 largest CPG manufacturers to maximize their on-shelf availability, operational productivity and omnichannel sales growth. In particular, RSi’s leading suite of on-shelf availability (“OSA”) solutions, OSAPower, includes a full spectrum of AI-driven tools to diagnose, reduce and prevent out-of-stocks. RSi powers its solutions with data from over 150 of the top retailers, to deliver insights to over 500 global CPG customers today.
Bert Clement, chief executive officer of RSi, said, “IRI is the ideal partner to build upon our existing suite of solutions and enable our clients to further optimize their supply chains, and we’re thrilled to be joining forces with them.”
“With access to enhanced data, technology, solutions and resources, existing RSi clients will be even better positioned to make smarter, faster decisions that maximize efficiency and drive growth,” added Stuart Careford, chief customer officer of RSi.
Benefits to IRI and RSi clients include:
- Unparalleled suite of supply chain solutions: Adding RSi’s comprehensive, industry-leading supply chain offerings to IRI’s existing supply chain capabilities will provide seamless integration of currently disparate data assets, creating comprehensive end-to-end supply chain visibility and enabling clients to more efficiently identify and address operational bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
- Expanded market coverage: The combination of IRI and RSi data assets creates the largest repository of store- and warehouse-level supply chain data, enabling unrivaled national supply chain solutions and capabilities.
- Enhanced collaboration between retailers and manufacturers: The integration of RSi’s solutions, including its Pacific platform, within IRI Liquid Data provides unprecedented collaboration capabilities within the supply chain ecosystem, creating opportunities to significantly improve clients’ core supply chain metrics.
- Seamless technology and data integration: Ability to access RSi solutions through IRI’s industry-leading IRI Liquid Data® platform will deliver intuitive, groundbreaking and results-oriented analytics and business intelligence in near real time, fully integrated with other IRI solutions and data assets. In particular, RSi’s leading suite of on-shelf availability (“OSA”) solutions, OSAPower, includes a full spectrum of AI-driven tools to diagnose, reduce and prevent out-of-stocks.
- The most intelligent Digital Shopper Marketing analytics: As part of the merger, RSi’s Ansa solutions will be offered by IRI’s Media Center of Excellence. Ansa, a three-time winner of Shopper Marketing Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award, empowers ad networks with the intelligence they need to plan, target, optimize and measure their campaigns based on daily, store-level sales and inventory.
- Augmented decision-making: IRI’s unparalleled data assets, extensive geographical coverage, and artificial intelligence and data science capabilities will enhance the supply chain offerings previously provided by RSi by incorporating augmented decision-making capabilities. IRI’s advanced platform pushes opportunities and risks to users in a seamless and efficient manner, including opportunities to improve on-shelf availability and reduce out-of-stocks, to drive both top-line and bottom-line growth along with superior in-store consumer experience.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to IRI. Wells Fargo Securities, LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Cooley LLP served as legal advisor to RSi.
In the near term, RSi will become a stand-alone operating subsidiary of IRI. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
About IRI
IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers, financial services and media companies grow their businesses. A confluence of major external events — a change in consumer buying habits, big data coming into its own, advanced analytics and personalized consumer activation — is leading to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers, collaborate with key constituents and deliver market-leading growth. For more information, visit www.iriworldwide.com.
About RSi
Retail Solutions, Inc. (RSi) transforms retail data into sales and profit for over 500 of the world’s leading manufacturers and retailers, enabling them to increase their sales and reduce their costs every day in 300,000+ stores around the globe. RSi’s retail applications, analytics and collaboration platforms empower customers with the intelligence they need to flawlessly manage their on-shelf availability and sales, delivering measurable ROI and increased profits to their organizations. Located in 15 countries around the world, RSi’s 300 employees are focused on one thing: driving customer value through industry-leading retail intelligence. If you need to increase your retail sales and profitability, RSi can deliver. Visit www.retailsolutions.com to learn more.
IRI Contact:
Shelley Hughes
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 312.474.3675
RSi Contact:
Mike Quinn
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 415.846.2110
Triton International Announces Pricing of Secondary Offering of Common Shares By Vestar & Affiliates
HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 1, 2020 – Triton International Limited (NYSE:TRTN) (the “Company” or “Triton”) today announced the pricing of the previously announced public secondary offering of an aggregate of 10,706,982 common shares by Vestar Capital Partners LLC and certain affiliated funds (the “selling shareholders”) at a price to the public of $38.25 per share. The Company is not selling any common shares in the offering and will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the common shares by the selling shareholders. The offering is expected to close on October 5, 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.
Following the sale of the shares, the selling shareholders will no longer own any of the Company’s common shares.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is acting as sole underwriter for the offering.
The offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement, previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and a related prospectus, copies of which, when available, may be obtained on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or by contacting Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526, facsimile: 212-902-9316 or by emailing [email protected].
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release, other than purely historical information, including statements regarding the expected closing of the secondary offering, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements that include the words “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “project,” “anticipate,” “will,” “may,” “would” and similar statements of a future or forward-looking nature may be used to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements address matters that involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Triton’s control. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such statements and, therefore, you should not place undue reliance on any such statements.
These factors include, without limitation, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory conditions and the following: risks and uncertainties related to capital markets conditions; that the offering, which is subject to customary conditions, could be terminated; the impact of COVID-19 on our business and financial results; decreases in the demand for leased containers; decreases in market leasing rates for containers; difficulties in re-leasing containers after their initial fixed-term leases; our customers' decisions to buy rather than lease containers; our dependence on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenues; customer defaults; decreases in the selling prices of used containers; extensive competition in the container leasing industry; difficulties stemming from the international nature of our business; decreases in the demand for international trade; disruption to our operations resulting from the political and economic policies of the United States and other countries, particularly China, including but not limited to the impact of trade wars and tariffs; disruption to our operations from failures of, or attacks on, our information technology systems; disruption to our operations as a result of natural disasters; our compliance or failure to comply with laws and regulations related to economic and trade sanctions, security, anti-terrorism, environmental protection and corruption; our ability to obtain sufficient capital to support our growth; restrictions imposed by the terms of our debt agreements; changes in tax laws in, Bermuda, the United States and other countries and other risks and uncertainties, including those risk factors set forth in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), on February 14, 2020, in any Form 10-Q filed or to be filed by Triton, and in other documents we file with the SEC from time to time. Except to the extent required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
About Triton International Limited
Triton International Limited is the world’s largest lessor of intermodal freight containers. With a container fleet of over 6.0 million twenty-foot equivalent units ("TEU"), Triton’s global operations include acquisition, leasing, re-leasing and subsequent sale of multiple types of intermodal containers and chassis.