Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Tuesday, September 20 2022 - 21:59
AsiaNet
BCI Leads Significant Investment in Authority Brands
COLUMBIA, Md. and VICTORIA, BC, Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

Authority Brands, a residential services franchising platform in North America, 
today announced that British Columbia Investment Management Corporation 
("BCI"), one of the largest institutional investors in Canada, has agreed to 
acquire a significant minority stake in the company, alongside funds advised by 
Apax Partners LLP ("Apax Funds"), which will retain majority ownership. 

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/795374/Authority_Brands_Logo.jpg 

Authority Brands is the premier home service franchisor in North America. Its 
family of home service franchise brands are leaders in their industry, 
providing homeowners with services from the property line to the roof line. 
Authority Brands' companies include 12 leading home service franchisors: 
America's Swimming Pool Company, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, The Cleaning 
Authority, Color World Painting, DoodyCalls, Homewatch CareGivers, Mister 
Sparky, Monster Tree Service, Mosquito Squad, One Hour Heating and Air 
Conditioning, STOP Restoration and Woofie's. Together, these brands provide 
home services through approximately 860 franchise owners across North America.

Since the Apax Funds' initial investment in 2018, Authority Brands has grown 
from two home service franchisors to the current 12, expanding into new 
geographies and services and building out a powerful infrastructure.

"We are proud to have partnered with the Authority Brands team to help build, 
both organically and through strategic acquisitions, a leading residential 
services franchising platform," said Ashish Karandikar, Partner at Apax. "We 
continue to see significant room for growth by Authority Brands and are pleased 
to join with BCI and members of the leadership team in the next phase of the 
company's journey as they extend their platform through M&A, and strategic 
initiatives including franchise development, technology transformation and 
international expansion."

"As a long-term investor, we seek to invest in market-leading companies with 
strong management teams, multiple levers for growth, and resilient business 
models that create shareholder value, such as Authority Brands," said Dave 
Hong, Senior Managing Director, Private Equity at BCI "We look forward to 
working with Authority Brands and Apax to generate compelling risk-adjusted 
returns for our pension plan and insurance fund clients."

"We could not be more pleased than to continue to build the premier residential 
services franchisor in partnership with Apax and BCI," said Craig Donaldson, 
Chief Executive Officer of Authority Brands. "Both partners will add 
substantial value as we aim to capture further share in the highly fragmented 
home services market, including by evaluating M&A opportunities in new service 
verticals."

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is 
expected to be completed in Q4 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.

Apax was advised by Harris Williams, Boxwood Partners, William Blair & Company, 
Moelis & Company (financial advisors), Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher & 
Bartlett, DLA Piper, and Lathrop GPM (legal counsel), and Ernst & Young 
(financial and tax advisor).

About BCI
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is amongst the largest 
institutional investors in Canada with C$211.1 billion under management, as of 
March 31, 2022. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Vancouver 
and New York City, BCI is invested in: fixed income and private debt; public 
and private equity; infrastructure and renewable resources; as well as real 
estate equity and real estate debt through our independently operated platform 
company QuadReal Property Group. With our global outlook, we seek investment 
opportunities that convert savings into productive capital that will meet our 
clients' risk and return requirements over time.

BCI's private equity program actively manages a C$24.8 billion global portfolio 
of privately held companies and funds with long-term growth potential. 
Leveraging our sector-focused teams in business services, consumer, financial 
services, healthcare, industrials, and technology, media and 
telecommunications, we work with strategic private equity partners to source 
and manage direct and co-sponsor/co-investment opportunities.

For more information, please visit bci.ca ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3652425-1&h=2587959851&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bci.ca%2F&a=bci.ca 
).

About Apax Partners LLP
Apax Partners LLP ("Apax") is a leading global private equity advisory firm. 
For nearly 50 years, Apax has worked to inspire growth and ideas that transform 
businesses. The firm has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of 
more than $60 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global 
sectors of Internet/Consumer, Tech, Services, and Healthcare. These funds 
provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class 
companies. For more information see: www.apax.com ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3652425-1&h=2136683777&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apax.com%2F&a=www.apax.com 
).

Apax Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in 
the UK.

About Authority Brands
Authority Brands is the premier residential services franchising platform 
providing services from the property line to the roof line. Authority Brands' 
companies include 12 leading home service franchisors: America's Swimming Pool 
Company, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, The Cleaning Authority, Color World 
Painting, DoodyCalls, Homewatch CareGivers, Mister Sparky, Monster Tree 
Service, Mosquito Squad, One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning, STOP 
Restoration and Woofie's. Together, these brands provide home services through 
approximately 860 franchise owners across North America. Authority Brands, 
which is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, is dedicated to supporting 
individual franchise owner growth with a full suite of marketing, technology, 
and operational support, allowing them to focus on providing exceptional 
service to homeowners. Please visit www.authoritybrands.com ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3652425-1&h=3400725240&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.authoritybrands.com%2F&a=www.authoritybrands.com 
)for more information.

Contacts:

For Authority Brands
Heather McLeod / 410-794-1430 / heather@authoritybrandsllc.com

For Apax
Luke Charalambous / +44 20 7872 6494 / Luke.Charalambous@apax.com

For BCI
Gwen-Ann Chittenden / +1 778 410 7310 / media@bci.ca

SOURCE Authority Brands, LLC

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