H.I.G. Capital, A Miami-Based Private Equity Firm, Annouced That It Has Acquired Amerijet International, Inc.
Miami, FL – January 14, 2002 – H.I.G. Capital, a Miami-based private equity firm, announced that it has acquired Amerijet International, Inc. (“Amerijet”) in partnership with David Bassett, the company’s CEO. Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Amerijet is the leading all-cargo airline to the Caribbean Basin as it provides direct, scheduled service to more destinations throughout the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America than any other cargo airline. The company operates a fleet of six Boeing 727-200 aircraft and offers scheduled cargo service and charter cargo service to more than 550 destinations worldwide. The company maintains its main cargo and flight hub in Miami, a network of field offices throughout the United States, and has foreign stations in 26 international destinations. In 2001, Amerijet generated $75 million in revenue by shipping more than 130 millions pounds of cargo.
H.I.G. Capital sponsored Amerijet’s Plan of Reorganization and emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Amerijet emerges as a strong company with a solid balance sheet only four months after it first filed for court protection.
“This outcome is ideal,” said David Bassett, Founder and CEO of Amerijet. “Thanks to the tremendous expertise and dedication of our employees and advisors, we were able to preserve a solid company, not to mention our service to customers in markets that critically depend on us. The speed with which this plan was developed and accepted is truly remarkable. I am also very excited that H.I.G. Capital is now a major investor in Amerijet and we look forward to accelerating the company’s growth with their involvement.”
Amerijet has a well diversified customer base that includes direct shippers, freight forwarders and brokers and other freight carriers as well as counter sales (walk-up business). The company is able to handle a variety of cargo, including large containers, loose cargo, perishable and live cargo and hazardous materials.
“We are extremely excited to be partners with David Bassett and the entire team at Amerijet, and look forward to an exciting future for the company,” said Doug Berman, Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital. “Amerijet has an outstanding management team, leading market share in most of its markets, and with this financial restructuring, a solid capital base. We congratulate the Amerijet employees, customers, and vendors for helping the company to emerge as a significantly stronger organization.”
About H.I.G.
H.I.G. Capital is a leading private equity and venture capital investment firm with more than $750 million of equity capital under management. Based in Miami, the firm specializes in providing capital to small and medium-sized companies with attractive growth potential. H.I.G. invests in management-led buyouts or recapitalizations of well established, profitable, and well managed manufacturing or service businesses and in promising early stage technology companies. H.I.G. Capital is an active investor, having made more than forty highly successful investments and acquiring companies with combined revenues in excess of $5 billion.