NRE Global Holdings Completes Recapitalization October 16, 2014
NRE Global Holdings, Inc. (NRE or the Company), headquartered in Mount Vernon, IL, announced the sale of the Company to the newly formed NRE Global Holdings, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Trust (ESOP). AWC Advisors, the advisory arm of American Working Capital (AWC), was engaged by NRE and its family shareholders to design and implement a highly customized ESOP transaction structure to meet the needs of the Company's selling shareholders while simultaneously ensuring NRE's continued financial flexibility, strength, and leadership by its CEO, Steven Beal, and executive management team. This transaction continued AWC's longstanding history of creating tailored solutions that meet shareholders' sometimes complex ownership succession objectives. American Working Capital also made a minority investment in NRE concurrent with the closing of the transaction, and David Light, a Partner at American Working Capital who led the deal team, has been invited to join the board of NRE.
NRE Global Holdings is a vertically integrated provider of new and remanufactured locomotives for sale or lease, third party locomotive and marine engine overhaul and maintenance services, and locomotive parts and components. Founded in 1984 by Lawrence Beal, NRE has grown to encompass fourteen North American and four international facilities and affiliates making it the world's largest independent supplier of new and remanufactured locomotives; new and rebuilt mechanical materials; electrical components; technical support and field services.
"From the time my father started this Company it has always been our intention to remain a privately held business. This ESOP transaction allows us to achieve several goals all at once - to reward the employees who have worked so hard to build NRE with a stake in its future growth, and to continue our legacy as a privately owned Company. Additionally, our executive management team, which guided the business through the recent recession and onto its current growth trajectory, will remain in day to day control of the Company. We are extremely pleased with the ESOP transaction structure created by AWC and with their extraordinary level of dedication throughout the transaction process. The team at AWC has an unmatched level of knowledge and experience in ESOPs and was able to accomplish something for us that we had been contemplating for a number of years," stated Steven Beal, NRE's CEO.
AWC Advisors worked with the NRE ownership and management team to implement a transaction structure that met the complex needs of the business itself, the selling family shareholders, and management and employees. Richard C. May, a founder of AWC Advisors, commented "On behalf of David and the entire AWC team, I want to congratulate everyone at NRE. This transaction marks a seminal moment in the development of the business and aligns the interests of the Beal family ownership, management, and employees of NRE in a new and exciting way. Given the numerous subsidiaries and scale of international operations, this assignment required a disciplined, thoughtful analysis which resulted in a transaction in which all of the Company's U.S. employees, as well as key international employees, will have an opportunity to participate in the future growth of the Company. We appreciate the opportunity to have worked with this great NRE team of people."
About NRE Global Holdings, Inc. NRE Global Holdings Inc. is in the business of selling, rebuilding, leasing, and servicing railway equipment. The Company is an independent supplier of quality new and remanufactured locomotives and components. NRE is the exclusive developer of the N-ViroMotive, the leading Environmental Protection Agency Tier II, III and IV certified locomotive featuring advances in the reduction of emissions, noise and fuel consumption.
About AWC Advisors AWC Advisors, LLC is the advisory arm of American Working Capital, a merchant banking firm headquartered in Chicago, with additional offices in Atlanta, Boston, and New York. With nearly 200 years of collective experience, AWC Advisors' investment professionals have worked with hundreds of owners and management teams running businesses at critical inflection points in terms of their ownership, growth and strategic development. AWC Advisors has extensive experience in transactions and investments involving broader-based employee ownership or ESOPs and has been at the forefront of some the most innovative and successful management/employee-led buy-out and recapitalization transactions. The firm is owned and managed by a group of experienced financial and management professionals with extensive experience working with privately held businesses, their owners and management teams.
For more information on AWC Advisors, LLC or American Working Capital please visit www.awcadvisors.com or contact: