H.I.G. Capital Announces Acquisition of Sunshine Media, Inc.
Miami, FL – February 6, 2001 – H.I.G. Capital, a leading private equity and venture capital firm, announced today that it has partnered with management to acquire Sunshine Media, Inc., based in Phoenix Arizona.
Sunshine Media is a top publisher of regionally focused specialty trade magazines throughout the United States and Canada. The Company’s leading title, Builder/Architect, targets the architectural and building trades and has been in publication since 1937. Sunshine Media produces more than 1,000 unique magazine editions each year, with each magazine containing regionally specific content and advertising about trade industry developments. Based on the successful Builder/Architect formula, the Company has introduced several new publications oriented to the medical, real estate, dental and restaurant professions.
“Sunshine Media is a terrific business that we think has tremendous growth opportunities and a great business model,” said Charles Hanemann, a Managing Director with H.I.G. “The Company creates its regional trade content through its impressive network of more than 130 publishers who are out in the field writing local stories and selling advertising. Its magazines offer a compelling value proposition to advertisers, who can reach a very targeted group of readers who are the key players and decision makers in their region’s trade industry.” H.I.G. Capital simultaneously announced that David Lesniak will become the new President and CEO of Sunshine Media, replacing the company’s retiring founder. Lesniak has held key executive positions with a variety of businesses, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer of DirectMail USA, a direct marketing company. Lesniak has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Debt financing for the acquisition was provided by MCG Credit Corporation.
About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. Capital is a leading private equity and venture capital investment firm with more than $1.5 billion of equity capital under management. Based in Miami, Florida, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco, H.I.G. specializes in providing capital to small and medium-sized companies with attractive growth potential. H.I.G. invests in management-led buyouts and recapitalizations of well-established, profitable, and well-managed manufacturing or service businesses, and in promising early-stage technology companies. Since its founding, H.I.G. has made more than fifty highly successful investments, acquiring companies with combined revenues in excess of $5 billion.
About Sunshine Media, Inc.
Sunshine Media is a leading producer of regionally focused, specialty trade magazines. The company produces more than 100 unique titles and 1,000 unique magazine editions each year from its headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona and its printing operations in Tucson, Arizona.