Lee Equity Acquires The Living Company
NEW YORK - October 15, 2019 - Lee Equity Partners, LLC (“Lee Equity”), a growth middle market private equity firm, announced today that it acquired majority ownership interest in The Living Company (“TLC”) based in Dallas, TX. The Living Company is the leading asset-light logistics provider of furniture, fixtures, and equipment (“FF&E”) to off-campus student housing properties, operating under the University Furnishings brand, and an emerging provider in hospitality and workforce housing. TLC provides end-to-end FF&E solutions to its global clients including design/layout, sourcing, kitting, warehousing, delivery, installation, replacement, and rehabilitation services. Within off-campus student housing, The Living Company has an installed base of more than 600,000 rooms at more than 2,000 properties serving the large majority of the leading student housing developers, owners, and managers in the United States.
TLC's experienced senior management team, led by Paul Dougan, CEO, will continue to lead the company and will retain meaningful equity ownership in the business. Equity investor TZP will exit the business, while Platform Ventures will retain an equity stake. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"Since our founding in 2003, TLC has been one of the fastest growing and most successful asset-light logistics providers of FF&E due to our longstanding industry experience and commitment to high quality custom solutions," said Paul Dougan, CEO of TLC. "Our national scale and local knowledge allow us to reliably reduce supply chain complexity and provide project completion certainty. With Lee Equity's knowledge and experience in the hospitality services industry and asset-light real estate services, we look forward to continuing to serve the student housing and hospitality industries and expanding into additional markets."
Over 16 years, TLC has solidified its leadership position in off-campus student housing in the United States into new geographies and new verticals such as hospitality and workforce housing. With its asset-light business model, market leading positions, and competitive differentiation, TLC will be well positioned for continued organic and acquisition-driven growth.
"TLC has an impressive reputation with clients given their strong value proposition as a risk manager and their exceptional, decade-long on-time delivery and installation track record," said Yoo Jin Kim, a Partner at Lee Equity. “We look forward to working with Paul and the entire TLC team to accelerate their FF&E business in hospitality, workforce housing, senior living and other sectors.”
Asset-light real estate services is a focus area for Lee Equity. Following the firm’s successful investment in Aimbridge Hospitality, the global leader in third-party hotel management, Lee Equity has pursued other asset-light real estate service providers. The firm invests in market leaders in high growth, high return on capital industries.
About The Living Company
The Living Company ("TLC") is an industry-leading innovator, known not only for beautifully durable furniture, but for its array of services, from design to delivery. Through collaborative concepting processes, dedicated factories, supply chain redundancy, turnkey customs management and proprietary delivery systems, TLC offers a seamless experience, providing its clients with total peace of mind throughout the process. TLC is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and serves a diverse customer base, including REITs, management companies, purchasing groups, developers, general contractors, designers and individual owner-operators within the off-campus housing and hospitality sectors. For more information, visit www.livingcompany.com.
About Lee Equity Partners
Lee Equity is a New York-based private equity firm that partners with successful management teams to build companies with strong growth potential. Lee Equity targets equity investments of $50 million to $100 million in middle market control buyouts and growth capital financings in companies with enterprise values of $100 million to $300 million which are located primarily in the United States. The firm invests in a range of industries where the team has deep relationships developed over decades, including business services, financial services, and healthcare services. Over the past decade, Lee Equity has invested and committed approximately $1.7 billion in more than 20 lower middle market companies and 50 add-on acquisitions. For more information, visit www.LeeEquity.com.
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