Antares Capital announced it is serving as administrative agent, lead arranger, and sole bookrunner on a senior secured credit facility to support the platform investment in Integrity Marketing Group, LLC (“Integrity”) by HGGC, and the concurrent acquisition of Premier Companies, Inc. LStar Capital provided junior debt to support the transaction.
Integrity is a leading insurance marketing organization that develops and distributes life and health insurance products with insurance carrier partners and markets these products through its distribution network.
“Antares took a creative approach to structuring and delivered a solution that spoke for the entire capital structure,” said John Block, principal with HGGC. “Throughout the process, we appreciated their diligence and flexibility.”
“We were pleased to leverage our partnership with LStar Capital to meet the complete debt needs of HGGC,” said Mary Gaede, managing director with Antares Capital. “Premier is a strong, tech-enabled platform, and we look forward to working with the Premier management owners as they continue to grow the company and take advantage of new opportunities.”
Integrity Marketing Group is one of the nation’s leading independent distributors of life and health insurance products focused on serving the senior market. Founded in 2006, Integrity develops and distributes life and health insurance products with insurance carrier partners and markets these products through its distribution network, which includes other large insurance agencies located throughout the country that have over 100,000 independent agents.
Premier Companies is a leading insurance marketing organization with over 32,000 agents appointed nationally, and 170 employees spread across 6 offices. Premier serves nearly 1 million clients. In 2015, Premier helped insurance carriers place over $400 million in new premium. Founded in 1968, Premier represents more than 70 insurance carrier partners.
HGGC is a leading middle-market private equity firm with over $2.4 billion in cumulative capital commitments. Based in Palo Alto, CA, HGGC is distinguished by its “Advantaged Investing” model that enables the firm to source and acquire scalable businesses at attractive multiples through partnerships with management teams, founders and sponsors who reinvest alongside HGGC, creating a strong alignment of interests. Over its history, HGGC has completed 60 platform investments, add-on acquisitions, recapitalizations and liquidity events with an aggregate transaction value of more than $10 billion.
LStar Capital is the credit affiliate of Lone Star Funds, a global private equity firm that invests in real estate, equity, credit and other financial assets. Since the establishment of its first fund in 1995, Lone Star has organized sixteen private equity funds with aggregate capital commitments totaling over $65 billion.
Antares Capital is the leading provider of financing solutions for middle-market, private equity-backed transactions with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Norwalk (Connecticut) and Toronto. Antares has facilitated more than $120 billion in financing over the past five years. Antares was named 2015 Dealmakers of the Year and 2014 Lender of the Year by Mergers & Acquisitions.