Leonard Green Veteran Creates New Player in Buyouts –

Gregory Annick, formerly of Leonard Green & Partners, announced the creation of Pasadena Capital Partners, breaking ranks with his previous firm to create a buyout shop focused on the small- to middle-market deals in Southern California.

;I believe a great opportunity has developed to target $50 million to $150 million buyouts, especially in the Southern California market,” Annick said in a statement, adding, “Many buyout firms that had success investing in middle-market buyouts have raised dramatically larger equity funds and are now pursuing larger transactions.

Pasadena Capital Partners, meanwhile, will direct its focus on smaller companies in the consumer products and services, manufacturing, specialty retailing and financial services sectors and will also target multi-unit operations. The firm’s strategy will be based on teaming up with a company’s existing management and enhancing the financial, operational and strategic resources of a business. The firm will also use its capital to invest in the business and selectively locate add-on acquisitions.

Initially, Pasadena will be targeting equity investments of $10 million to $25 million. The firm will be looking for a number of investment opportunities, including traditional management buyouts, recapitalizations of family- or founder-owned businesses, acquisitions of larger companies’ orphaned divisions as well as public-to-private deals.

Pasadena’s first fund, to be called Pasadena Capital Partners Fund, L.P., has a goal of accumulating $150 million of capital. The firm intends to take part in stand-alone investments, while raising money for the fund.

Gregory Annick had been employed at Leonard Green & Partners since its founding in 1989, and had served as a partner at the firm for the past eight years. While there, his functions ranged from sourcing investment opportunities, financing buyouts, working with the management teams of the firm’s portfolio companies and participating in raising and managing buyout funds. Among the more notable deals on Annick’s resume are the $280 million buyout of Carr-Gottstein Foods Co., the $50 million privatization of Australian Resources Ltd., the $200 million acquisition of Communications & Power Industries and the $170 million recap of Diamond Triumph Auto Glass, among others.

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