Yankee Hill wraps up first deal

Yankee Hill Capital Management, a two-year-old firm with ambitions to raise an institutional fund, has made its first deal, acquiring a majority stake in Great Western Products, a supplier of concession foods to movie theaters.

“We participated in a lot of auctions and it was frustrating at times,” says Peter Weinbach, who co-founded Yankee Hill with his father Lawrence Weinbach. “But we stuck to the belief that buying price does matter and [we] just weren’t coming out winners.”

Yankee Hill is assuming a 77% stake in the company, while the Great Western Products management group, including its president Ralph Ferber, will obtain the remaining 23 percent. The seller was not disclosed.

Yankee Hill Capital has yet to raise a formal fund, though the firm would like to raise one in the “not too distant” future, Weinbach says. At present, Yankee Hill is backed by a number of high net-worth individuals and funds contributed by the Weinbachs. —Michael Baron