Industry Update: E-Commerce Industry M&A – June, 2016

June, 2016.

E-Commerce M&A continues to see strong activity. YTD 2016 transaction volume of 166 deals is on pace with 2015 levels. During 2015, there were 320 transactions.

For Year-to-Date 2016, strategic buyers accounted for 87% of the e-commerce M&A transactions with financial buyers making up the difference. During 2015, strategic buyers accounted for approximately 80% of the transactions.

For announced transactions (albeit a limited sample size), e-commerce multiples saw 9.7x EBITDA and 2.0x revenue in Year-to-Date 2016.

Peakstone equally weighted e-commerce index continues to outperform the S&P 500.

Notable publicly announced transactions:

– Salesforce.com Inc. announced the acquisition of Demandware Inc. for approximately $2.8 billion.

– GP Investments Acquisition Corp. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WKI Holding Company, Inc. for approximately $741 million.

– MKS Instruments, Inc. signed a merger agreement to acquire Newport Corp. for approximately $1 billion.

– Dalian Wanda Group Corporation Ltd. agreed to acquire Legend Pictures, LLC for approximately $3.5 billion.

Industry Update: Pet Industry M&A – May, 2016

May, 2016.

For YTD 2016, strategic buyers accounted for 79% of Pet Industry M&A transactions. During 2015, strategic buyers accounted for approximately 89% of the transactions.

Notable recent M&A transactions:

– CVC Capital Partners Limited and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board signed a definitive agreement to acquire PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc. for approximately $4.6 billion

– Central Garden & Pet Company entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire Dallas Manufacturing Company, Inc. for approximately $61 million.

– Patterson Companies, Inc. acquired Animal Health International, Inc. for approximately $1.1 billion.

– Renovo Capital and Summit Investment Management entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire Dallas Manufacturing Company for approximately $37 million.

– Outward Hound, a Riverside portfolio Company, acquired Petstages, Inc. for an undisclosed amount.

– Outward Hound, a Riverside portfolio Company, acquired Bionic for an undisclosed amount.

Industry Update: Restaurant Update: Spotlight on Fast Casual – May, 2016

May, 2016.

For YTD 2016, strategic buyers account for 90% of restaurant M&A transactions. In 2015, strategic buyers accounted for 80% of the transactions.

Restaurant multiples in announced transactions have been consistent over the past several years, at approximately 10x enterprise value to EBITDA and 1x enterprise value to revenue.

Recent notable publicly announced M&A transactions:

– Brinker International, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pepper Dining, Inc. for approximately $106 million.

– McCormick & Company, Incorporated signed a definitive agreement to acquire One World Foods, Inc. for approximately $100 million.

– NRD Capital Management signed a definitive agreement to acquire Frisch’s Restaurants, Inc. for approximately $177 million.

– Levy Acquisition Corp. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Del Taco Holdings, Inc. for $500 million.

– AMC Wings, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire A Sure Wing, L.L.C. for $54 million.

Industry Update: Food & Beverage M&A – May, 2016

May, 2016.

Food and Beverage (“F&B”) M&A continues to see strong activity. Q1 2016 had a transaction volume of 117 deals which is just under Q4 2015 record levels, 127 deals in Q4 2015.

For YTD 2016, strategic buyers accounted for 90% of F&B M&A transactions. During 2015, strategic buyers accounted for 87% of the transactions.

Many F&B categories continue to outperform the S&P 500.

Notable publicly announced Q1 2016 M&A transactions:

– InvenTrust Properties Corp. acquired Stevenson Ranch Plaza in Los Angeles, California for approximately $73 million.

– Constellation Brands Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Huneeus Vintners LLC for approximately $285 million.

-United Natural Foods, Inc. acquired Nor-Cal Produce, Inc. for approximately $69 million.

– Apollo Global Management, LLC entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Fresh Market, Inc. for approximately $1.3 billion.

– Sazerac Company, Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire the Southern Comfort and Tuaca brands from Brown-Forman Corporation for approximately $544 million.

– Glencoe acquired Clearbrook Farms for an undisclosed amount.  Peakstone was the advisor to Clearbrook on this transaction.

Christian Colucci Joins Peakstone as Managing Director

April, 2016. Christian Colucci is a Managing Director at The Peakstone Group with over 15 years of investment banking experience. Christian has completed over 50 M&A and capital raising advisory assignments for middle market and large capitalization clients mostly in the industrial and consumer sectors. Christian has primarily focused on the middle market throughout his career and has completed transactions up to $4 billion in enterprise value.

Prior to joining Peakstone, Christian was instrumental in building the industrial technology investment banking practice at Robert W. Baird and completed several of the firm’s largest transactions. Christian began his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions group of Banc of America Securities and worked in the industrial investment banking groups of Bear Stearns and Deutsche Bank in their New York and Chicago offices.

Christian has a MBA from the University of Chicago, with High Honors and Beta Gamma Sigma distinction, and a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.

About Peakstone

The Peakstone Group is a leading investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions advisory and capital raising for middle market clients. Our team is comprised of senior investment banking professionals who have decades of experience and have executed hundreds of transactions totaling billions of dollars. For additional information, visit www.peakstone.com or contact Carolyn Henson, chenson@peakstone.com or 312-204-7300.

Andy Savarie Joins The Peakstone Group as Managing Director

April, 2016. Andy Savarie is a Managing Director at The Peakstone Group and has over 25 years of investment banking and entrepreneurial business experience. Andy has advised clients of all sizes on well over 100 M&A and financing transactions totaling over $125 billion in market value across a variety of industries including general industrial, automotive, technology, healthcare, financial services and telecommunications. Andy has assisted clients with a wide range of transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, recapitalizations, initial public offerings, common stock and convertible equity issuance, and high yield and investment grade debt financings.

Andy began his investment banking career at Morgan Stanley where he spent almost ten years as a generalist and member of the firm’s industrial practice and eventually as head of the automotive group. Andy later joined the industrial practices and ran the automotive groups as a Managing Director at both Banc of America Securities and Bear Stearns. In 2008, Andy became a co-founder and senior executive of Carbon Motors Corporation, an early stage company focused on developing a highly innovative purpose-built law enforcement vehicle, working closely with a team of nearly 50 automotive suppliers, including leading players like BMW, Lotus, Bosch and Lear. Just prior to joining Peakstone, Andy spent two years as a Managing Director in the industrial group at KPMG Corporate Finance where he ran the firm’s automotive investment banking practice and worked with a wide variety of middle market clients in the industrial and automotive sectors on a range of strategic M&A and growth capital financing transactions.

Prior to his career as an investment banker and entrepreneur, Andy also spent four years as an officer in the United States Air Force working on an advanced satellite communications system.

Andy holds an MBA, with distinction, from The Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Duke University.

About Peakstone

The Peakstone Group is a leading investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions advisory and capital raising for middle market clients.  Our team is comprised of senior investment banking professionals who have decades of experience and have executed hundreds of transactions totaling billions of dollars.  For additional information, visit www.peakstone.com or contact Carolyn Henson, chenson@peakstone.com or 312-204-7300.

Industry Update: Packaging M&A – April, 2016

April, 2016.

Packaging M&A continues to see strong activity with 2015 transaction volume of 65 deals.

For the 2015 period, strategic buyers accounted for 80% of the packaging M&A transactions with financial buyers making up the difference. During 2014, strategic buyers accounted for approximately 72% of the transactions.

Notable publicly announced recent transactions:

– Novolex just announced the acquisition of Heritage Bag Company and also acquired Wisconsin Film & Bag in 2015

– WestRock Company just completed the acquisition of Cenveo Packaging in January 2016 for $105 million

– WestRock Company also acquired SP Fiber for approximately $290 million and MeadWestvaco Corporation for approximately $11.6 billion

– KapStone acquired Victory Packaging for $640 million

– Jarden Corp. acquired WNA for approximately $1.4 billion

Closed Deal Announcement – Peakstone Advises Clearbrook Farms on Sale to Glencoe Capital

March, 2016. Peakstone served as exclusive financial advisor to Cincinnati Preserving Company, Inc., dba Clearbrook Farms, on its sale to Glencoe Capital, LLC. Clearbrook is an award-winning provider of a variety of all natural jams, jellies, fruit butters, preserves and fillings to both the retail and industrial markets.  More information regarding Clearbrook Farms can be found on their website, www.clearbrookfarms.com.

“The acquisition of Clearbrook represents an excellent opportunity for Glencoe Capital to enter the fast growing specialty foods segment.  Clearbrook Farm’s branded retail products have an excellent and long-standing reputation for manufacturing a wide array of clean-label and high-fruit products, and is well positioned for growth among today’s consumers seeking quality all-natural foods.  The Company also serves a select list of long-term customers in the private label and industrial segments, demonstrating innovation in product development, quality manufacturing, and excellent service,” said Jason Duzan, Managing Director of Glencoe Capital.  “Peakstone was essential to completing this transaction.  Their team did outstanding work facilitating the process to a successful close.”

Clearbrook’s President and CEO, Andy Liscow, will continue in his role.  “I look forward to working with Glencoe Capital to continue building the Clearbrook brand.  We believe that our partnership with Glencoe Capital is a great opportunity for our employees, customers and suppliers as we explore various growth initiatives for our business.  We believe that the time is right to make investments in the business to expand our product offerings to be even more successful.  With the support of Glencoe Capital, we can do that.”

Dan Cohen, who helped build Clearbrook’s reputation in the specialty foods market, will remain with the Company in a transitional role. “After many years in this industry, I look forward to transitioning the brand and spending more time with my family. I couldn’t be prouder of our products, our employees and the business we built. The Peakstone team was invaluable to the sale process. They developed and executed on a successful sell strategy, including managing the process to a successful transaction close.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For additional information about this transaction, contact:
Eric Dziedzic, Managing Director, 312-346-7314, eric@peakstone.com
Cathy Jaros, Managing Director, 312-262-7735, cjaros@peakstone.com

About Peakstone

The Peakstone Group is a leading investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions advisory and capital raising for middle market clients.  Our team is comprised of senior investment banking professionals who have decades of experience and have executed hundreds of transactions totaling billions of dollars.  For additional information, visit www.peakstone.com.

Industry Update: E-Commerce M&A – February, 2016

February, 2016

E-Commerce M&A continues to see strong activity. 2015 transaction volume of 369 deals is just below record 2014 levels.  During 2014, there were 375 transactions, an increase of over 12% from the prior year. For 2015, strategic buyers accounted for 81% of the e-commerce M&A transactions with financial buyers making up the difference.  During 2014, strategic buyers accounted for just over 85% of the transactions.

For announced transactions (albeit a limited sample size), e-commerce multiples saw a modest increase from 10.5x EBITDA and 0.7x revenue in 2014 to 10.9x EBITDA and 1.4x revenue in 2015. Peakstone equally weighted e-commerce index continues to outperform the S&P 500.

Notable publicly announced 2015 transactions:

– LeftLane Sports, Inc. acquired Retail Innovation Group, Inc. for approximately $19 million.

– Hudson’s Bay Company entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gilt Groupe Inc. for approximately $250 million.

– QVC, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire zulily, Inc. for approximately $2.5 billion.

– Gamestop entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Geeknet for approximately $130 million.

– Expedia entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Orbitz for $1.4 billion.

Industry Update: Food & Beverage M&A – January, 2016

January, 2016

Food and Beverage (“F&B”) M&A continues to see strong activity. 2015 had a transaction volume of 351 deals is above 2014 record levels, 333 deals in 2014. For 2015, strategic buyers accounted for 87% of F&B M&A transactions. During 2014, strategic buyers accounted for just over 91% of the transactions.

F&B transaction valuation trends are near historical highs. In 2015, F&B multiples were approximately 13.4x EBITDA and 1.8x revenue. Many F&B categories continue to outperform the S&P 500.

Notable publicly announced 2015 M&A transactions:

– Sazerac Company, Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire the Southern Comfort and Tuaca brands from Brown-Forman Corporation for approximately $544 million.

– Acorn Holdings B.V. entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. for approximately $14.3 billion. The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2016.

– Pinnacle Foods Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Boulder Brands, Inc. for approximately $991 million.

– Molson Coors Brewing Company entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MillerCoors LLC for $12 billion.

– The Kroger Co. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Roundy’s, Inc. for $835 million.