Background:
Ascension Advisory is proud to represent a leading private-equity backed industrial value-added metals distribution portfolio company. The company operates out of several mission-critical facilities, including the subject properties totaling over 600,000 square feet in Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, and Manitoba, Canada.
Client Objective:
The private equity sponsor and Ascension have worked together on numerous sale leaseback transactions, as the firm considers the strategy a critical part of their investment thesis as a way to free up capital tied up in real estate to reinvest into the growth of their portfolio company operations. The private equity firm had recently acquired the operating company and its owned real estate assets, and immediately engaged Ascension to run the sale leaseback process.
Solution:
The Ascension Advisory team structured a sale leaseback opportunity of the four mission-critical manufacturing sites of the business. Ascension targeted their network of sophisticated, institutional investors who operate in both the United States and in Canada. Interest level among investors was high, and after multiple competitive rounds and over twenty offers, an institutional investment fund out of New York was awarded the deal. The Ascension team successfully guided the parties towards a successful closing at a sale price of $49 million. The $49 million in sale leaseback proceeds contributed to the sponsor's closing of a $440 million single asset continuation vehicle, which provided the capital needed to purchase the metals distribution company. Given this important use of proceeds, it was critical that the Ascension team closely directed all aspects of the sale leaseback closing in order to coordinate the timeline to align with the CV transaction timeline.