Gichner is a manufacturer of tactical military shelters, containers and subsystems which are used by every branch of the U.S. and European Armed Forces, primarily as mobile operations centers for high-value communications and IT equipment.
Management wanted to purchase Gichner from Dominion Capital, Inc., a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE: D), one of the nation’s largest producers of energy. While Dominion was receptive to the concept, management did not have the financial resources to purchase the Company on their own.
Griffin quickly assessed the viability of the management buyout, assisted management in structuring and negotiating the terms of the acquisition and managed a competitive capital raising process to privately place the senior debt, subordinated debt and private equity capital.
Management’ selected National Penn Bank and KNBT Bancorp as senior lenders, Argosy Investment Partners as lead subordinated debt lender and Altus Capital Partners and Dunrath Capital as lead private equity investors.