Orangewood, launched by ex-Carlyle exec, inks third platform deal

Orangewood Partners purchased George Industries LLC, the Endicott, New York, maker of engineered components, in its third platform deal as a private holding company that invests without a traditional private equity fund. Terms weren’t disclosed.

Alan Goldfarb, managing partner of Orangewood, formerly worked at Carlyle Group and Senator Investment Group before launching the New York firm in 2015.

“We started Orangewood with the purpose of investing in both platform control-type investments as well as opportunistically investing in special situations — distressed and structured investments in both private and public companies,” Goldfarb said in a phone interview.

The firm looks to provide $25 million to $100 million of equity in a given deal. It’s also close to finishing up a fourth platform investment, according to a person familiar with the firm. Goldfarb declined to comment on either of these two details.

“We invest in unique assets and we have several investors backing us,” Goldfarb said to describe his firm’s business model. “We have long-term capital to do these types of deals.”

In hunting for deals, Orangewood looks to team with operating executives to make platform investments with support from LPs. Orangewood’s other two platform investments, K2 Towers, an owner of wireless-communication towers, and Peaceable Street Capital, also involved high-powered executives.

The George Industries deal started out partly with conversations between Goldfarb and manufacturing executive Shankar Kiru, former chief financial officer of Diversified Machine Inc, which was a Carlyle portfolio company. The two had worked on deals together and talked about owning an industrial company.

“We said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to build a platform together to grow the business over the long term and not to buy or sell based on fund terms?’” Goldfarb said.

Goldfarb and Kiru were later introduced to the grandson of the founders of George Industries. They spent a year getting to know Mark Ciaravino, the former CEO of George Industries, who is retaining an ownership stake in the company.

Orangewood plans to grow George Industries with Kiru as CEO of the employer of about 100.

“It’s rare that I find so many capabilities under one roof,” Kiru said. “They make engineered components into really amazing products for commercial aerospace, helicopters, hybrid electric buses — a range of different industries and capabilities.”

The firm teamed up with David Henry, the former CEO of Kimco Realty Corp, on the deal for Peaceable Street Capital, a real-estate-finance platform for small and mid-sized income-producing properties formed last year.

Orangewood worked with David Zalaznick, founder of JZ Capital as well as Jordan Co, to buy a stake in K2 Towers. JZCP invested $22 million in K2 Towers as part of the deal, which was announced in June 2015.

Looking ahead, Goldfarb said the firm is under no mandate to do a certain number of deals a year.

“Our pace of deals depends on the opportunity,” he said. “We have a robust pipeline.”

Action Item: See George Industries here: http://georgeindustries.com/

Photo of Alan Goldfarb courtesy of the firm.