Castle Harlan is a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The company focuses on

buyout In finance, a buyout is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" the present equity holders of the target company. A buyout ...

s and

growth capital Growth capital (also called expansion capital and growth equity) is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new mark ...

investments in

middle-market companies Authorities provide differing definitions of the middle-market or mid-market companies. While some authorities look to revenue generated by companies to define the middle market, other sources regard either asset size or number of employees as a bet ...

across a range of industries. Founded in 1987, Castle Harlan invests in controlling interests in middle-market companies in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

through Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners. Castle Harlan's team of 18 investment managers has completed over 50 acquisitions since its inception with a total value of approximately $10 billion. The firm currently manages investment funds with equity commitments of approximately $3.5 billion. Castle Harlan has invested, through its five domestic funds, in more than 55 platform businesses that totaled over $11 billion of enterprise value.

History

Castle Harlan was founded in 1987 by

John K. Castle John K. Castle is chairman and chief executive officer of Castle Harlan, Inc., the chairman of Branford Castle, Inc. and the co-founder of Castle Connolly Medical. Castle Connolly Medical Limited Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. has historically pu ...

, but its history goes back to the 1960s. During the 60s John Castle headed all of the private equity activities, including the Sprout Capital Group, at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ). At that time DLJ used some of the first limited partnerships to bring institutional investors into private equity investing. From the period between 1979 and 1986, Castle rose to become the president and chief executive officer at DLJ. Leonard Harlan joined DLJ in 1965. Harlan left DLJ in 1969, and formed a real estate investment group, The Harlan Company. In 1987, Castle and Harlan, with a few others raised $125 million for its new limited partnership, Legend Capital Group, L.P., to invest in leveraged buyout transactions. In 1999, Castle Harlan teamed with Bill Ferris and Joseph Skrzynski of Australian Mezzanine Investments to create Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners, also known as CHAMP. CHAMP focuses on control investments in middle-market businesses in

and

with similar criteria to Castle Harlan. CHAMP also has an affiliate, CHAMP Ventures, that invests in small buyouts, non-control growth capital and venture capital. CHAMP raised its second fund with A$950 million of investor commitments in 2005 and its third fund with A$1.5 billion in 2010. On April 17, 2018, Castle Harlan announced its agreement to purchase the oil and gas production equipment assets of

Exterran Corporation Exterran Corporation was set up in 2007 until it was acquired by Enerflex on October 11, 2022 and was headquartered in Houston, Texas. Exterran engaged in oil and natural gas production, processing, treating, transportation, produced water tre ...

. The deal resulted in the creation of a new company, Titan Production Equipment. The sale was closed in summer 2018, and Titan Production Equipment launched in July 2018. In August 2019, Castle Harlan, together with Branford Castle Partners, purchased Sunless Inc., a spray tanning equipment manufacturer, from The Riverside Company. In October 2019, the company sold one of its portfolio companies, Gold Star Foods, to Highview Capital. Castle Harlan purchased Gold Star in April 2014. By November 2019, the firm had the following five investments: Sunless, Shelf Drilling, Caribbean Restaurants LLC, Titan Production Equipment and Tensar Corp.

Investments vehicles

Private equity funds

Since its launch, Castle Harlan has participated in the following eight private equity funds. Five located in the United States, and three in Australia: The following are the U.S. based funds:

Portfolio companies

Castle Harlan co-owns

Bravo Brio Restaurant Group FoodFirst Global Restaurants (formerly Bravo Brio Restaurant Group) is the parent company of the Bravo! Cucina Italiana and Brio Tuscan Grille restaurant chains in the United States. It was established in Columbus, Ohio as Bravo Brio Restaurant G ...

, Tensar, Polypipe Group,

Horizon Lines Horizon Lines, Inc. was an American domestic ocean shipping and logistics company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the largest Jones Act maritime shipping and logistics company and accounted for approximately 37% of all US contai ...

Ames True Temper Ames True Temper is a multinational corporation headquartered in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Griffon Corporation. Ames True Temper specializes in the manufacture of non-powered lawn and garden products. The ...

, Austar United Communications,

McCormick & Schmick's McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants Inc. is an American seafood restaurant chain, formerly based in Portland, Oregon. As of July 2021, the company operates 26 locations in the United States and 5 Canadian locations that operate under the Bo ...

, RathGibson, United Malt Holdings, and AmeriCast Technologies.

Branford Castle, Inc

New York based private equity firm Branford Castle was founded in 1986 as a private market investor in companies with less than $100 million annual sales. It is run by brothers John S. Castle and David A. Castle. In November 2019 Branford Castle sold Surface Preparation Technologies to Dominus Capital and Drew Foam Companies, one of Branford's portfolio companies, purchased Davis Core & Pad from owner Joel Davis. In September 2019 it bought Pulse Veterinary Technologies and in August, 2019 it acquired ABC Industries.

Awards and recognition

In 2019, the

Association for Corporate Growth The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) is an organization providing a global "community" for mergers and acquisitions and corporate growth professionals. Founded in 1954, ACG has grown to more than 14,500 members from corporations, private e ...

awarded Titan Production Equipment, an affiliate of Castle Harlan, the Houston Deal of the Year Award in the category of Restructuring and Turnaround Transactions.

References

Additional references

CASTLE HARLAN'S RICHES FROM NICHES
Business Week, November 11, 1996
Castle Harlan executive says fair-value rule has contributed to economic crisis
Private Equity Wire, December 16, 2008 * Polypipe: Castle Harlan Disconnects Polypipe. The Deal, Aug 14, 2007

External links

Castle Harlan
(company website)
Branford Castle
(affiliated company website) {{private equity firms Private equity firms of the United States Companies based in New York City Financial services companies established in 1987