Haas Wheat & Partners 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 focused on

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

transactions. The firm targets specialty middle-market manufacturing, distribution and service companies, particularly family-controlled companies and corporate spin-outs. The firm is based in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

and was founded in 1992.

History

Hicks & Haas

Robert (Bobby) Haas formed ''Hicks & Haas'' together with

Tom Hicks Thomas Ollis Hicks Sr. (born February 7, 1946), is an American private equity investor and sports team owner living in Dallas, Texas. ''Forbes'' magazine estimated Hicks' wealth at $1 billion in 2009, but it dropped to $700 million in 2010 ...

in 1984. Prior to 1984, Haas was a principal of a venture capital firm and a partner in a Midwest law firm specializing in corporate and securities law. The next year Hicks & Haas firm bought Hicks Communications, a radio outfit run by Hicks' brother Steven. Hicks & Haas' biggest coup was its mid-1980s acquisition of several

soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a su ...

makers, including

Dr Pepper Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Euro ...

and

7 Up 7 Up (stylized as 7up outside North America) is an American brand of lemon-lime-flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The brand and formula are owned by Keurig Dr Pepper although the beverage is internationally distributed by PepsiCo. 7 Up comp ...

. The firm took Dr Pepper/7 Up public just 18 months after merging the two companies. In all, Hicks & Haas turned $88 million of investor funding into $1.3 billion. The pair split up in 1989; Hicks wanted to raise a large pool to invest, but Haas preferred to work deal by deal.

went on to form

Hicks Muse HM Capital Partners was a private equity firm in the United States that specialized in leveraged buyouts. The firm was previously known as Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. It was founded in 1989 by Tom Hicks and John Muse as Hicks, Muse & Co. and was ch ...

, which in the late 1990s was one of the largest private equity firms in the US.

1992-2006

In 1992, Robert Haas founded Haas Wheat & Harrison to focus on middle-market transactions. Among his co-founders were Thomas Harrison, who had previously worked with Haas at Hicks & Haas and Douglas Wheat, a former investment banker with

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; fina ...

. From 1984 through 1989, Doug Wheat was a member of

DLJ Merchant Banking aPriori Capital Partners is a private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions. The firm was founded as an affiliate of Credit Suisse and traces its roots to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the investment bank acquired by Cr ...

and in 1989, Wheat left DLJ to co-found an investment firm, Grauer & Wheat.Former President and Co-Founder of Haas Wheat & Partners Starts New Investment Firm
October, 2006 Tom Harrison left the firm in 1996 to join Hoak Communications Partners, the predecessor of what is today, Hoak & Co.

Since 2006

In October 2006, Douglas Wheat announced that he was leaving Haas Wheat to found a new private equity firm, Foxbridge Partners. In 2007, Foxbridge merged with Challenger Capital Group, founded by Mark Stephens.
Dallas Morning News, April 30, 2007

References

External links

Haas Wheat & Partners
(company website)

New York Times, March 21, 1995

New York Times, June 7, 1995

New York Times, November 8, 1996

New York Times, February 18, 1998

Dallas Business Journal, November 22, 1996 {{DEFAULTSORT:Haas Wheat and Partners Private equity firms of the United States Financial services companies established in 1992