H.I.G. Capital Announces the Sale of Brand Addition

H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private equity investment firm with over €20 billion of equity capital under management, today announces that it has sold Brand Addition (“Brand Addition” or the “Company”) to Elysian Capital (“Elysian”). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in the UK, Brand Addition is a leading global service provider in the design, sourcing and distribution of promotional merchandise to large corporates predominantly in the automotive, engineering, health and beauty, FMCG, technology and financial services industries.

Following the carve-out from 4imprint in March 2011, H.I.G. teamed with Chris Lee and the senior executives of Brand Addition to successfully reposition the business, increasing the range of services and geographic reach, and shifting the emphasis to focus on large corporate clients under long term contracts. The acquisition of St Louis based Gateway CDI in January 2016 followed new office openings in Turkey, Russia and China. Today, Brand Addition offers the unique combination of a broad service delivery and global reach in what remains a highly fragmented industry.

Carl Harring, Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital commented: “We have enjoyed working with Chris Lee and his team in what has been a successful investment for H.I.G. Assisting in the execution of the strategic plan via international expansion, the targeting of new customer channels and end markets plays to many of H.I.G.’s strengths. Brand Addition today has the global footprint to capitalise on its market leading service proposition. We wish Chris and the team every success in the future.”

Chris Lee, CEO of Brand Addition commented: “We would like to thank the team at our outgoing investors H.I.G. Capital for their advice, encouragement and support over the last five years. Under H.I.G.’s ownership, we have successfully internationalised the business, concluding two acquisitions; most recently entering our largest market in the US early last year. We look forward to the continuation of our current growth with Elysian.”

About Brand Addition

Brand Addition is a leading global promotional products business, serving corporate customers across a number of industries with ethically-sourced, creative, branded products to support their corporate marketing activity and consumer promotion campaigns. Brand Addition employs c.300 people and is headquartered in Manchester (UK) but has a global presence with offices in London, Ireland, Turkey, Russia, China and most recently the US through the acquisition of Gateway CDI. For additional information on Brand Addition, see www.brandaddition.com .

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with over €20 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach:

1. H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalisations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.

2. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.

3. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 200 companies worldwide. The firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of €28 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.

* Based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates.

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Contact information

H.I.G. Capital
Carl Harring, +44 (0) 207 318 5700
Managing Director
charring@higcapital.com
F +44 (0) 207 318 5749
www.higcapital.com