Private partnership buys GNC
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley
After a number of private bids to take General Nutrition Centers Inc. public fell through, the Downtown-based nutritional supplements retailer has a new private owner.
New York-based Apollo Management LP sold the parent holding company of GNC to a partnership between Los Angeles-based Ares Management LLC and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, based in Toronto.
GNC sold for approximately $1.65 billion, a figure only slightly higher than the retailer's 2006 sales of $1.5 billion.
Apollo originally paid the Dutch firm Royal Numico NV $750 million for GNC in 2003, a relative bargain at the time considering Royal Numico paid $2.5 billion in 1999 after a largely failed effort to dominate the U.S. supplements market.
Despite years of increasing competition from drug stores, big boxes and other retailers, GNC remains the largest specialty retailer of nutritional products.
The company has more than 4,800 retail locations throughout the United States. That includes more than 1,000 franchise and 1,200 Rite Aid store-within-a-store locations.
Ares Management is a private investment firm with approximately $12 billion of assets under management, including Serta and Samsonite Corp., among others.
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan represents $85 billion in retirement investments for 264,000 retired teachers. The plan's investment arm is Teachers' Private Capital, which maintains $12 billion in assets.
tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3826
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