H.I.G. Capital and FDN Acquire Supra Telecom
April 29, 2005 – H.I.G. Capital, a Miami-based private equity firm, announced today that together with FDN Communications, a leading provider of telecommunications services in the Southeast, it has acquired Supra Telecommunications & Information Systems, Inc., the second largest provider of residential telephone service in Florida. H.I.G. and FDN will each own 50 percent of Supra. Supra emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 21, 2005. Supra currently serves over 250,000 customers, with the majority of their customers in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Supra Telecom, based in Miramar, is the 2nd largest telecommunications provider in the tri-county area with over 250,000 customers and annual revenues exceeding $150,000,000. Supra provides local, domestic and international long distance, voicemail, and internet service to its business and residential customers. Supra is one of the few competitive local exchange carriers to deploy its own carrier class network switches to serve its customers. Supra provides nearly half of all competitive access lines in the state of Florida and is estimated to be the largest residential competitor to BellSouth in Florida.
“H.I.G. is very pleased to be partnering with FDN on this transaction. FDN is an ideal partner for us and brings strong capabilities to the table. We are extremely excited to be investing in a quality organization such as Supra, and look forward to helping the Company to continue providing outstanding value and service to its more than 250,000 customers. Supra is now well positioned to capture many of the opportunities in the evolving telecom market and we are eager to work with management towards their continued success.” said Doug Berman, a Managing Director with H.I.G.
About FDN Communications:
Headquartered in Maitland, Florida, FDN Communications has been a leading growth company over the last six years, providing business class communication services to over 100 markets in Florida and Georgia. FDN currently serves more than 70,000 business locations with more than 250,000 business telephone and Internet lines. Presently employing about 600 people, FDN has become a major economic force in Florida and Georgia. FDN offers a complete line of communications services, including local and long distance voice, High-Speed Internet access, Virtual Private Networking (VPN), Web Hosting and Integrated voice and data solutions to businesses. FDN also is the parent company of Broadline Communications, which offers VoIP telephone service to residential customers.
About H.I.G. Capital:
H.I.G. Capital LLC (“H.I.G.”) is a leading private equity and venture capital investment firm with more than $1.5 Billion of equity capital under management. Based in Miami, 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 profitable and well managed manufacturing or service businesses, and in promising early-stage technology companies. H.I.G. also has extensive experience with financial restructurings and operational turnarounds. Since its founding, H.I.G. has completed in excess of 70 transactions. The firm currently has a significant stake in more than 40 companies with combined revenues in excess of $5 Billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.hig.com.