Sale Leaseback of Whisker Manufacturing Facility

Background:

The Ascension Team represents, Whisker, a leading innovator of highly functional pet appliances and accessories, headlined by the world-famous Litter-Robot. The company is backed by private equity firm, Pondera Holdings. Together, the Company’s Founders and Pondera Holdings have taken Whisker to new heights by becoming a world leading pioneer in the development of highly functional pet products. The Company has been experiencing unprecedented growth in the past couple of years which led them to expand their manufacturing facilities in order to quadruple the output to keep up with the growing demand.  The new Whisker facility spans 222,200 square feet across 2 buildings. The site is comprised of manufacturing, assembly, warehouse and office space.

Client Objective:

To accommodate its robust growth, Whisker recently invested significant capital to upgrade and expand its manufacturing and fulfilment campus in Juneau, becoming the town’s largest employer with more than 300 employees. The Company and the private equity firm understood the value proposition of the sale leaseback strategy and engaged the Ascension team to evaluate the Company’s owned real estate in Juneau, Wisconsin. The team was confident in its ability to generate strong interest in the sale leaseback opportunity given the mission-critical nature of the subject properties, the attractive credit profile of tenant, and the tailwinds of the pet care industry. Whisker hired Ascension to run a full marketing process for the company’s campus in Juneau.

Solution:

The Ascension team ran an aggressive marketing process with multiple bidding rounds and brought in 8 offers from qualified public REITs, private REITs, and net lease investment funds. Our team negotiated the deal on behalf of the Company and the Sponsor and was able to close the transaction with the buyer above the asking price and within 2 weeks of executing the purchase agreement. The sale leaseback unlocked meaningful capital for the Company and the private equity firm to redeploy into higher ROI opportunities that will help drive the company’s growth for years to come.