Falfurrias Capital Partners, a Charlotte-based private equity firm, has invested in Commercial Credit Group, a Charlotte-based provider of equipment financing for the construction, fleet transportation and waste industries.
The transaction totalled approximately USD20m and included a purchase of preferred stock and an equity infusion to support the company’s growth.
Falfurrias Capital, founded by former Bank of America chairman and chief executive Hugh McColl Jr. and former Bank of America chief financial officer Marc D. Oken, has been actively targeting investments in the specialty finance industry during recent months.
“We have been extremely impressed by Commercial Credit Group’s management team and its ability to maintain strong financial performance through one of the most difficult economic downturns of the last century,” says Oken. “We look forward to leveraging the industry knowledge and relationships that our principals have developed over the last 50 years in the financial services sector to be a value-added partner in the future growth and success of Commercial Credit Group.”
In the wake of the financial crisis, Commercial Credit Group has seen several of its largest competitors exit the equipment finance business or significantly curtail lending activity. Commercial Credit Group has seized on the opportunity, growing organically from zero finance receivables in October 2004 into one of the largest independent equipment finance companies in its markets in the US.
“Joining forces with Falfurrias will enable our team to execute our growth strategy that has been made possible by the dislocation in the financial markets,” says Commercial Credit Group president and chief executive Dan McDonough. “We are confident that Falfurrias’ equity investment will enable us to gain additional market share at a time when few of our competitors are managing their businesses toward growth.”
Falfurrias Capital, which announced an investment in a bank holding company called North American Financial Holdings earlier this year, continues to actively pursue investments in the financial services market.
