Bain Capital

Governor Mitt Romney was one of the nation’s most influential businessmen during the 80’s and 90’s. Invested in and/or acquired Staples, Dominos, Sealy and Sports Authority (among others) while C.E.O. of Bain Capital.

History

Bain Capital LLC is a Boston, Massachusetts-based private equity firm founded in 1984 by Mitt Romney, later Governor of Massachusetts, and two other partners from Bain & Company, the consulting firm: T. Coleman Andrews and Eric Kriss. Bain Capital was originally conceived as a combined equity start-up and leveraged buyout fund, an innovative strategy at the time.

The original $37 million fund was raised entirely from private individuals in mid-1984, led by Ricardo Poma, the El Salvadoran billionaire. One of the fund's first start-up investments was Staples, Inc., the $15 billion office supply retailer. The funding enabled Staples to expand from one store in 1986 to nearly 1,700 in 2006. Bain Capital founded, acquired or invested in hundreds of companies including Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Brookstone, Domino's, Sealy and The Sports Authority.

In addition to the three founding partners, the early Bain Capital team included Fraser Bullock, Robert F. White, Joshua Bekenstein, Adam Kirsch and Geoffrey S. Rehnert. Bullock joined Romney as the Chief Operating Officer for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games when Romney left Bain in 2001 to lead the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. 12

Twenty years after its inception, Bain Capital manages over $17 billion in assets, and holds positions in such iconic American companies as Toys R Us, Burger King and Unisource.

Key deals

In September 2002, Bain Capital partner Steve Pagliuca led a private buyout of the Boston Celtics.

In November, 2004, the Dollarama chain of dollar stores, based in Montreal, Canada and operating stores in the provinces of Eastern Canada were purchased by Bain Capital for $1.05 billion CAD.

In March 2005, Pagliuca proposed a $3.5 billion buyout of all 30 teams in the National Hockey League. The offer was promptly rejected. In June 2005, the company made a revised bid of $4.3 billion for the 30 teams and allow the current owners to maintain a stake in the league.

In June 2005, Bain teamed up with Haier Group, China's largest appliance maker, and private equity firm Blackstone Group in an attempt to acquire Maytag for over $1 billion. The bid was dropped a month later.

On April 10, 2006, shareholders of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp., which operates more than 360 retail stores approved the acquisition of the company by Bain Capital.

On August 21, 2006 it was announced that Apax Partners and Bain Capital had joined the enlarged private equity consortium headed by KKR that has agreed to acquire an 80.1% stake in the Semiconductor Division of Royal Philips Electronics. The new company is called NXP Semiconductors.

On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel Communications agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital and Thomas Lee Partners for nearly $19 billion.3

Affiliates

Bain Capital's family of funds includes private equity, venture capital, public equity and leveraged debt assets.

Absolute Return Capital (ARC) is the global macro affiliate of Bain Capital managing approximately $600 million of capital. ARC manages assets in fixed income, equity and commodity markets to produce attractive risk-adjusted returns while maintaining low correlation to traditional investments.

Bain Capital Private Equity has raised eight funds and invested in more than 200 companies. The private equity activity includes leveraged buyouts and growth capital in a wide variety of industries.

Bain Capital (Europe) Limited, an affiliate of Bain Capital, LLC, is dedicated to investment opportunities in the European market. Based in London and Munich, and building off Bain Capital's successful European investment track record since 1987.

Bain Capital Ventures is the venture capital arm of Bain Capital, focused on seed through late-stage growth equity investing in software, hardware, information, healthcare, and technology-driven business services companies.

Brookside Capital is the public equity affiliate of Bain Capital. Brookside's primary objective is to invest in securities of publicly traded companies that offer opportunities to realize substantial long-term capital appreciation.

Sankaty Advisors, the fixed income affiliate of Bain Capital, is one of the nation's leading private managers of high yield debt obligations. With over $12 billion of committed capital, Sankaty invests in a wide variety of securities, including leveraged loans, high-yield bonds, distressed debt, mezzanine debt, convertible bonds, structured products and equity investments. Sankaty Advisors Website