Sentinel Capital Partners

American private-equity firm

Sentinel Capital Partners

Company type| Private
Industry| Private Equity
Founded| 1994; 31 years ago (1994)
Headquarters| New York, New York, United States

Key people

| David S. Lobel
John F. McCormack[1]
Products| Mezzanine capital, Management Buyouts, Corporate Divestitures, Industry Consolidations, Going-Private Transactions, Leveraged Buyouts, and Growth Capital
Total assets| $1.97 billion (assets under management)[2]

Number of employees

| 35+[3]
Website| www.sentinelpartners.com

Sentinel Capital Partners, L.L.C. is an American private-equity firm focusing on mid-market companies.[4][5][6] The company is headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1994 by David Lobel and John McCormack after working together at Salomon Smith Barney.[7]

## Operations

[edit]

Sentinel invests in companies through various private equity strategies including Leveraged Buyouts, Mezzanine capital, Management Buyouts, Corporate Divestitures, Industry Consolidations, Going-Private Transactions, and Growth Capital transactions in the United States and Canada. The firm has focused its investments on companies operating in the aerospace, defense, business service, consumer, distribution, food, restaurant, franchising, industrial and healthcare sectors.[8][9]

Sentinel says it prefers to invest between $10 million and $75 million in businesses having enterprise values between $25 million and $250 million, and EBITDA between $7 million and $65 million. While most of its deal involve Sentinel being the majority-investor, it co-invests selectively. The firm seeks to exit its investments between five and seven years through alternative exit strategies, such as sales, mergers or recapitalizations, or an initial public offering.[10]

## Investment funds

[edit]

Sentinel invests through a series of private limited partnerships and its investors include a variety of pension funds, endowments, and other institutional investors. Since Sentinel's establishment in 1995, it has raised six private equity funds and one mezzanine capital fund.

Investors in Sentinel Funds include college and university endowments, foundations, state and government retirement systems, corporate pension plans, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, investment advisors, family offices, and Taft-Hartley plans located in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, and the Middle East.[11]

Fund | Vintage
Year | Committed
Capital ($m)

|
|

Sentinel Capital Partners Fund VI | 2018 | $2,150[12]
Sentinel Junior Capital I | 2018 | $460[13]
Sentinel Capital Partners Fund V | 2013 | $1,300[14]
Sentinel Capital Partners Fund IV | 2008 | $765[15]
Sentinel Capital Partners Fund III | 2005 | $319[16]
Sentinel Capital Partners Fund II | 1998 | $126[17]
Sentinel Capital Partners Fund I | 1996 | $50

## Controversy

[edit]

### Buffet Holdings Settlement

[edit]

In 2010, the creditors of Buffets Holding sued Sentinel and its investment partner Caxton-Iseman Capital for “bilk[ing] Buffets of hundreds of millions of dollars" that lead to its insolvency.[18] Sentinel and CI Capital settled the lawsuit for more than $23 million.[19]

### TGI Fridays

[edit]

Sentinel and Triartisan Capital Partners acquired TGI Fridays in 2014 from Carlson a month after the company facing a nationwide collective action wage theft lawsuit. The company tried to prevent certification of an FLSA collective by settling with individual workers that alleged unpaid wages up to $91 million.[20] Eventually TGI Fridays settled in 2017 for over $19 million to over 28,000 workers, the largest wage and hour payout at the time.[21][22] In 2018, TGI Fridays was also found to have failed to pay £59,348 to its U.K. staff.[23][24]

In 2019, TGI Friday was sued in a proposed class-action lawsuit for selling potato skin chips that don't contain potato skins.[25][26]

In April 2020, Sentinel's deal to take TGI Friday's public was called off due to "extraordinary market conditions" due to the coronavirus outbreak.[27][28]

## Past Investments

[edit]

The firm has previously invested in franchise holders of some of the world's largest fast food chains such as Checkers and Rally's, Church's Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.[29][30]

Other past holdings include Colson Group, The Cin Group, Critical Solutions International, Driven Performance Brands, Hollander Sleep Products, Luminaires, Marketplace Events, National Spine and Pain Centers, Playcore, Power Products, Quick Weight Loss Centers, Revenew, RotoMetrics, and WellSpring Pharmaceutical.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]

## Current Investments

[edit]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

### Aerospace

[edit]

* Airboss Defense Group
* Total Military Management

### Business Services

[edit]

* Apex Companies
* Corporate Visions
* Mobile Communications
* New Era Technology
* Revenew
* Ubeo Business Services

### Consumer

[edit]

* Cabi
* GSM Outdoors
* Holley Performance Products, Inc.
* Pet Supplies Plus

### Food / Restaurants

[edit]

* Captain D's
* Fazoli Group
* Newk's Eatery

### Healthcare

[edit]

* Altima Dental
* MB2 Dental
* NY Bariatric Group
* Midwest Eye Consultants

### Industrials

[edit]

* Colson Group
* ECM Industries
* Nekoosa
* NSI Industries
* SONNY's: The Carwash Factory

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners, L.L.C.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
2. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners Investor Profile".
3. ^ "PRIVATE EQUITY MARKETPLACE : Firm Profile Report" (PDF). Wl1.peer3.60.com. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
4. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners to Move Office HQ to One Vanderbilt". Metro Manhattan Office Space. 2019-06-04. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
5. ^ "Big Players Love the Lower Middle Market". Retrieved 2020-05-31.
6. ^ "Sentinel Capital builds investments, brick-by-brick - Franchise Times - September 2016 - FranchiseTimes.com". www.franchisetimes.com. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
7. ^ Meikle, Brad (1999-07-19). "Sentinel Capital Closes Second Fund at $126M -". Buyouts. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
8. ^ "Sentinel | Private Equity | Lower | Middle Market | Management Buyouts". Sentinelpartners.com. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
9. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners - Fund and Executive Details". Private Fund Data. 2017-09-27. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
10. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners, L.L.C.: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
11. ^ FinSMEs (2018-01-26). "Sentinel Capital Partners Closes Two Private Equity Funds, at $2.6 Billion". FinSMEs. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
12. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners Closes $2.15 billion Sixth Private Equity Fund". PR Newswire.
13. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners Closes $2.15 billion Sixth Private Equity Fund". PR Newswire.
14. ^ Jacobius, Arleen. "Sentinel Capital closes 5th fund with $1.3 billion". Pensions and Investments. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
15. ^ "Sentinel Closes Fifth Fund at $1.3 billion". PitchBook.
16. ^ Ziobro, Paul. "Sentinel Sells Golf Cart Accessories Company to Audax". MarketWatch. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
17. ^ Ziobro, Paul. "Sentinel Sells Golf Cart Accessories Company to Audax". MarketWatch. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
18. ^ "Buffets Holdings' former owners sued by court-appointed trustee". Reuters. 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
19. ^ Appelbaum, Eileen; Batt, Rosemary (2014-03-31). Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street. Russell Sage Foundation. p. 69\. ISBN 978-1-61044-818-5.
20. ^ Calder, Rich (2015-01-05). "TGI Friday's paying off employees to stop suit: lawyer". New York Post. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
21. ^ Fickenscher, Lisa (2017-09-21). "TGI Friday's agrees to settle wage suit for more than $19M". New York Post. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
22. ^ "TGI Friday's Gets Initial OK On Revised $19.1M Wage Deal - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
23. ^ Munbodh, Emma; Sembhy, Ravender (2018-03-09). "Named and shamed: The 179 companies fined for paying less than minimum wage". mirror. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
24. ^ Cole, Matt (2018-05-18). "Why a Strike at TGI Friday's Is a Big Deal for Britain's Pissed Off Hospitality Workers". Vice. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
25. ^ Inc, Midwest Communications. "Lawsuit says TGI Fridays potato skins contain no potato skins". Sports Radio KWSN. Retrieved 2020-05-31. `{{cite web}}`: `|last=` has generic name (help)
26. ^ "Troncoso v. TGI Fridays Inc. (1:19-cv-02735), New York Southern District Court". www.pacermonitor.com. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
27. ^ "TGI Fridays will no longer go public in wake of coronavirus". Restaurant Dive. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
28. ^ "SPAC scraps $380M TGI Friday's deal | PitchBook". pitchbook.com. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
29. ^ Visconti, Alesia (2017-12-18). "Sentinel Capital Partners Acquires Captain D's". Franchise Dictionary Magazine. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
30. ^ "Prior Companies Investment". www.sentinelpartners.com. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
31. ^ "Sentinel Capital to put Checkers Drive-In Restaurants up for sale: Bloomberg - PE Hub". Pehub.com. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
32. ^ "Sentinel Capital invests in Altima Dental - PE Hub". Pehub.com. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
33. ^ "Chattanooga-based Playcore buys Worlds of Wow". Timesfreepress.com. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
34. ^ "Sentinel Capital Partners acquires Quick Weight Loss Centers". Pehub.com. 23 August 2016. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
35. ^ "SONNY'S Enterprises Inc. partners with Sentinel Capital Partners - Professional Carwashing & Detailing". Carwash.com. 8 December 2016. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
36. ^ "Fazoli's names David Hasler CFO". Nrn.com. 6 February 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
37. ^ Bissell, Jennifer (7 February 2017). "Maverick behind 'Doritos Locos Tacos' to join TGI Fridays". Financial Times. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
38. ^ "Sentinel acquires Revenew - PE Hub". Pehub.com. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
39. ^ "Sentinel recaps lighting products maker TLG - PE Hub". 8 June 2016.
40. ^ "Sentinel Capital buys Marketplace Events - PE Hub". Pehub.com. 28 January 2016. Retrieved 2017-08-10.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* Sentinel Capital Partners at Google Finance
* Sentinel Capital Partners at Hoovers

* v
* t
* e

Private equity and venture capital

Investment types|

* Buyout
* Leveraged
* Growth
* Venture
* Mezzanine
* Growth
* Secondaries
* Equity co-investment
* NAV lending

History|

* Early history
* 1980s
* 1990s
* 2000s
* 2010s
* 2020s

Terms and
concepts|

| Buyout|

* Financial sponsor
* Management buyout
* Divisional buyout
* Buy–sell agreement
* Leveraged recapitalization
* Dividend recapitalization

|

Venture|

* Angel investor
* Business incubator
* Post-money valuation
* Pre-money valuation
* SAFE
* Seed money
* Startup company
* Venture capital financing
* Venture debt
* Venture round

Structure|

* Private equity firms and funds
* Limited partnership
* Limited liability company
* Carried interest
* Management fee
* Pledge fund
* Publicly traded private equity
* Business Development Company
* Venture capital trust
* Private investment in public equity (PIPE)
* SPAC

Investors|

* Corporations
* Institutional investors
* Pension funds
* Insurance companies
* Fund of funds
* Endowments
* Foundations
* Investment banks
* Merchant banks
* Commercial banks
* High-net-worth individuals
* Family offices
* Sovereign wealth funds
* Crowdfunding

Related
financial terms|

* AUM
* Cap table
* Capital call
* Capital commitment
* Capital structure
* Distribution waterfall
* EBITDA
* Envy ratio
* High-yield debt
* IPO
* IRR
* Leverage
* Liquidation preference
* M&A
* PME
* Taxation of private equity and hedge funds
* Undercapitalization
* Vintage year

* List of private equity firms
* List of venture capital firms

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