Tricap, the private equity unit of publicly-listed asset manager Brookfield Asset Management, has purchased bankrupt Canadian bathroom products manufacturer Maax from a private equity consortium for C$271 million ($258 million; €179 million) plus the assumption of debt.
The consortium that sold Maax was made up of Boston-based JW Childs Associates, Toronto-based Borealis Capital and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. The group took Maax private in a 2004 deal worth C$640 million.
Maax found itself in “a situation where it was a very good company but it was suffering from too much debt that it couldn’t service”, senior managing partner Bruce Robertson told PEO.
The company struggled under the weight of a heavy debt load, resulting from the leverage in its buyout and a 2005 dividend recapitalisation. The deteriorating economy caused a further drag on Maax's ability to pay off its debt.
Maax defaulted on its senior notes in December 2007. The company went through a sale process in 2008 that resulted in no successful bids, and filed for bankruptcy protection in July.
Tricap specialises in US and Canadian restructurings in industries including: real estate, financial, manufacturing, forest products, metals and mining, energy and power generation. The group targets transactions in which it can invest between $50 million and $500 million in either debt and equity capital.
The group closed its second fund on $1 billion at the end of 2007.
Global asset manager Brookfield has approximately $95 billion of assets under management and focuses on property, power and other infrastructure assets.
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