Anchorage Capital Partners

Anchorage Capital Partners is an Australian private equity company with headquarters in Sydney.[1]

This article is about the Australian company. For the American company, see Anchorage Capital Group.

Anchorage Capital Partners
TypePrivate
IndustryFinance
Founded2007
Headquarters
Sydney
,
Australia
Area served
Australia
New Zealand
South East Asia
Key people
Phil Cave (founder, executive chair)
Callan O'Brien (managing partner)
Simon Woodhouse (managing partner)
AUM~$400 million (2023 forecast)
Websitewww.anchoragecapital.com.au

Company name

In 2015, the company lost a case in the Federal Court against a similarly named United States company, Anchorage Capital Group, which also does business in Australia. The Australians were the first to register their website and claimed that the Americans had infringed on their trademark. The judge accepted the Australians had not copied the name of the pre-existing American company when choosing a name of their own.[2]

Founders and management

Anchorage Capital Partners was founded in 2007 by Phil Cave, Daniel Wong and Michael Briggs.[2][3][4] Cave had worked with private equity firms in the 1980s on deals involving well-known Australian brands such as Victa and Sunbeam, and was an executive director of Macquarie Bank.[5][6] Anchorage's managing partners are Callan O'Brien, who worked as a lawyer for Cave before joining the firm in 2014, and Simon Woodhouse.[6]

History

In 2008, Anchorage bought the Australian-owned canned fruit company Golden Circle and sold it about six months later to the H.J. Heinz Company in America.[4] In 2009, it bought the New Zealand master franchiser for Burger King, Antares Restaurant Group, which it sold in 2011 to the Blackstone Group.[4][7][8]

In 2012, the Dick Smith Electronics chain was bought for $20 million.[9] The chain was floated on the Australian Securities Exchange the following year with a market capitalisation of $520 million.[1] The float was described as the “greatest private equity heist of all time" by Forager Fund Management chief investment officer Steve Johnson. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association told a Senate inquiry that the chain had been stripped of cash.[6] The company collapsed and the stores closed in 2016 but the brand name was sold to Kogan.com, which continued online sales.[10][11] The company founder, Dick Smith, blamed Anchorage's greed for the chain going into receivership with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs.[12] However, Anchorage management told the Senate inquiry they had left Dick Smith Electronics in a good financial position.[13]

In 2014, irrigation company Total Eden was sold to Ruralco for $57 million.[14] Clothing and footwear retailer Brand Collective was bought from Pacific Brands the same year, and sold in 2021 to the LK Group, the holding company of Melbourne businessman Larry Kestelman.[15][16]

In 2020, Scott's Refrigerated Logistics, which supplies trucks and warehouses to big supermarket chains in Australia, was bought for about $75 million from AP Eagers.[17] The same year, the rail freight company CF Asia Pacific was bought, and rebranded a year later as Rail First Asset Management.[18] In November 2020, a bid to merge Anchorage subsidiary SPL with Spotless Laundries was abandoned after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission raised concerns about a lessening of competition for commercial laundry services in Australia.[19]

In 2021, financial software group GBST Holdings was acquired.[20]

In 2022, the David Jones department store chain was bought from Woolworths South Africa.[6] The selling price was reportedly about $100 million.[21][22]

In 2023, turnaround plans for Scott's Refrigerated Logistics were hampered due to flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic.[23] The company went into receivership, 1,500 workers were laid off, and plans were made to sell Scott's 500 trucks.[17] Union officials blamed supermarket chain Aldi for refusing to sign a supply chain charter. A spike in fuel prices caused by war in Ukraine also hurt profitability.[24]

Portfolio

As at March 2023, Anchorage's fourth fund was expected to be worth about $400 to $500 million. Previous funds were speculated to have fetched returns of more than 40 per cent.[1] The portfolio in 2023 consisted of David Jones, GBST, SPL, and New Zealand companies Access Community Health and Evolve Education Group.[25]

Notable former investments include Brand Collective, Burger King, Dick Smith, Golden Circle, RailFirst and Total Eden. Other investments have been in a diverse range of industries such as childcare, facilities management, manufacturing, scaffolding and solar energy.[26]

FundYear closedCapital
Anchorage Capital Partners Fund I2008[27]$200 million[4]
Anchorage Capital Partners Fund II2013[27]$250 million[28]
Anchorage Capital Partners Fund III2017[27]$350 million[29]

References
  1. Fickling, David (5 January 2016). "Who Killed Dick Smith? 'Buyer beware' is the lesson from an Australian retailer's decline and fall". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  2. Kruger, Colin (14 September 2015). "Phil Cave's investment bankers at Anchorage take name calling to a whole new level". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  3. "Daniel Wong". Mergr. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  4. "Anchorage Capital Partners Closes A$200 Million Fund". Wayback Machine. Anchorage Capital Partners. 31 March 2010. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  5. "Phillip Cave AM, Executive Chair". Anchorage Capital Partners. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  6. Weinman, Aaron (12 March 2023). "Inside Anchorage Capital Partners, the very private PE deal makers". The Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  7. Keown, Jenny (16 September 2009). "Private equity buys Burger King NZ". Wayback Machine. Stuff.co.nz. Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  8. Gibson, Anne (30 November 2011). "Blackstone pays tasty $108m for Burger King". Wayback Machine. New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 18 March 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  9. Janda, Michael (27 September 2012). "Woolworths sells Dick Smith to private equity". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  10. "Online retailer Kogan to keep Dick Smith brand alive". Channel 9 Finance. Nine Entertainment. 15 March 2016. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  11. Chung, Frank (15 March 2016). "Ruslan Kogan rescues Dick Smith". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  12. "Dick Smith blames company's previous private equity owners' 'greed' for collapse; employees wait to hear fate". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 6 January 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  13. Low, Catie (8 April 2016). "Dick Smith collapse: Anchorage distances itself in Senate submission". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  14. "Ruralco to acquire Total Eden". Wayback Machine. Business Spectator (News Limited). 13 February 2014. Archived from the original on 18 March 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  15. Mitchell, Sue (21 July 2021). "Larry Kestelman's LK Group snaps up Shoes & Sox owner". Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  16. "Brand Collective + Shoes & Sox". Anchorage Capital Partners. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  17. "1500 jobs lost as huge logistics firm collapses". news.com.au. News Corp Australia. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  18. "Anchorage Capital Partners Acquires CF Asia Pacific". Anchorage Capital Partners. 6 January 2020. Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  19. "South Pacific Laundry - Spotless Laundries". Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. 4 November 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  20. Thompson, Sarah; Macdonald, Anthony (22 December 2021). "Anchorage PE swoops on wealth management software biz GBST". Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  21. Rolf, Brooke e (13 June 2023). "David Jones records major downturn amid RBA hikes". news.com.au. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  22. LaFrenz, Carrie (20 December 2022). "David Jones sold for $100m, bought for $2.1b in 2014". Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  23. Macdonald, Anthony; Thompson, Sarah; Sood, Kanika (27 February 2023). "KordaMentha takes the keys at Anchorage's Scott's Refrigerated". Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  24. Schneider, Kate (7 March 2023). "'Stop the slaughter': Aldi slammed by TWU after collapse of Scott's". News.com.a. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  25. "Current Portfolio". Anchorage Capital Partners. 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  26. "Exited Companies". Anchorage Capital Partners. 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  27. Macdonald, Anthony; Thompson, Sarah; Sood, Kanika (8 February 2022). "PE firm Anchorage Capital adds partner, flags new fund". Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  28. "Anchorage Capital Partners Closes Fund II". Wayback Machine. Anchorage Capital Partners. 5 April 2013. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  29. "Anchorage Capital Partners announces closing of $350 million for its third fund". Wayback Machine. Anchorage Capital Partners. 30 November 2017. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
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