Background:
The Ascension Team represents a private equity owned distributor and marketer of flower bulbs based out of the Northeast. The sponsor recently acquired the business and the real estate, understanding the spread that they could achieve by flipping out the real estate post-closing in a sale leaseback arrangement. The real estate included 2 industrial facilities, comprised of 50+ acres of land and serving as the company’s nursery, production facility, distribution center, and corporate headquarters.
Client Objective:
The private equity firm engaged the Ascension team to run an expedited marketing process in order to close the sale leaseback transaction relatively quickly. The team was confident in its ability to bring in aggressive offers given the mission-critical assets to the operating company, the significant land component, the strong tenant credit, and the premier private equity backing.
Solution:
The Ascension team approached a curated list of sale leaseback investors specifically interested in industrial transactions with a significant land component, given the unique nature of the subject properties. The team brought in multiple competitive offers within one week of being engaged on the project. The Ascension team ran multiple bidding rounds between the interest parties, ultimately securing an outlier offer that was millions of dollars higher than the rest. The team successfully closed the sale leaseback transaction at a total purchase price of $32.5 million. The sale leaseback proceeds allowed the sponsor to recoup significant equity that they had invested in the initial acquisition.