Happy Monday, Term Sheeters. Finance reporter Luisa Beltran here.

Private equity’s interest in sports teams has increased rapidly in the past four years.

Since 2019, there have been at least 20 private equity investments in major league sports teams, according to Kyle Walters, associate analyst, private equity at PitchBook. This compares to just six PE sports deals from 2016 to 2019. 

Sixty-two major North American sports teams, valued at $179.7 billion, have “connections” to PE, according to a new Private Equity in Sports Dashboard from PitchBook. (Connections refers to the PE firms investing in the teams or the individual execs.) The PitchBook dashboard, which went live Sept. 7, tracks private equity investments in the four North American men’s pro leagues that allow PE ownership: Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer. 

Booming valuations of sports teams is one of the main reasons for the PE interest. For example, the Dallas Cowboys saw its valuation rise 20% to $9.2 billion in 2023, according to Sportico. 

Sports teams are very unique assets, Walters said. “Other sectors like tech and healthcare can be cyclical. Sports is less prone to a recession,” he said.

Ownership rules of sports teams began softening four years ago. In 2019, MLB became the first of the professional sports leagues to allow private equity funds to buy passive stakes in teams. The NBA, the NHL, and MLS followed, each allowing PE to invest in their teams but only for minority stakes. Only the National Football League, or NFL, still bars private equity and sovereign wealth funds from ownership, Fortune has reported.

The league that has generated the most interest from private equity? That title belongs to the NBA. There are 30 teams in the NBA. Twenty of the NBA teams, valued at an estimated $46.8 billion, have a private equity connection. This includes the Boston Celtics, the Detroit Pistons, and Los Angeles Lakers. NBA teams that don’t have any connection to PE include the Chicago Bulls, the Houston Rockets, and the New York Knicks, PitchBook said.

When it comes to MLB, 18 of 30 teams have connections to private equity. This includes the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the New York Yankees. The NHL has 10 teams with private equity connections, while MLS has 14 teams.

PE firms with funds dedicated to sports teams include Dyal Partners, which is part of Blue Owl Capital; Arctos Partners; and Ares Management, Walters said. In July, I set about to determine how many executives in the alternative space, which includes private equity and hedge funds, had invested in sports teams. I discovered that about 120 execs are investors in sports teams and many own multiple assets. Consider David Blitzer, a Blackstone Group executive, who has invested in the Philadelphia 76ers, the Cleveland Guardians and the Washington Commanders. Blitzer is global head of Blackstone’s tactical opportunities group. You can read the full story here.

See you tomorrow,

Luisa Beltran
Twitter: @LuisaRBeltran
Email: luisa.beltran@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

– Mariana Oncology, a Watertown, Mass.-based biotech startup building radiation treatment machines and softwarefor cancer, raised $175 million in Series B funding. Deep Track Capital and Forbion led the round and were joined by Nextech Invest, Surveyor Capital, Eli Lilly and Company, and others.

– Open Cosmos, a Harwell, U.K.-based startup that designs and makes satellites to gather data from space, raised $50 million in Series B funding from ETF Partners, Trill Impact, and A&G. 

– Spiritus, a White Rock, N.M.-based climate company creating carbon removal technology, raised $11 million in funding. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by Page One Ventures and others.

– Mindtrip, a San Francisco-based company employing A.I. to aid in travel planning, raised $7 million in seed funding from Costanoa Ventures.

– Inari, a Barcelona-based tech infrastructure company for insurance and reinsurance firms, raised $5.2 million in seed funding. Caixa Capital Risc led the round and was joined by CDTI and others. 

– SaaSGrid, a San Francisco and New York City-based data and analysis platform for SaaS metrics, raised $3.3 million in seed funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by angel investors.

PRIVATE EQUITY

– Alchemy Copyrights agreed to acquire Round Hill Music Royalty Fund, a Nashville, Tenn.-based private equity firm that invests in music copyright assets, for around $468.8 million, per Reuters.

– Cordental Group, backed by New MainStream Capital, acquired Signature Dental Experience, a Bloomington, Ill.-based dental services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

– Dunes Point Capital acquired Warshaw Supply, a New York City-based data communication and electrical products provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Havencrest Capital Management acquired a majority stake in Tekton Research, an Austin, Tex.-based research center that conducts vaccine and infectious disease clinical trials, among other therapeutics. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

– Heartisan, a portfolio company of Ronin Equity Partners, will acquire North Country Packaging, an Almena, Wisc.-based cheese producer, with $10 million in revolving credit. 

– Legacy Food Group, backed by Quad-C Management, acquired Keck’s Food Service, a Millerton, Penn.-based food products distributor, M&V Provisions, a Ridgewood, N.Y.-based food products manufacturer and distributor, Thomsen Foodservice, a Rumford, R.I.-based food product distributor, and Legacy Foodservice Alliance, a Glen Allen, V.A.-based supply chain company connecting foodservice distributors with suppliers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Seacoast Service Partners, backed by White Wolf Capital Group, acquired United Plumbing of Southeast Florida, a Ft. Myers, Fla.-based plumbing service provider.

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Shaker Heights sorted students by ability level, and the top classes always had more White students. In the pandemic, it unraveled this ‘tracking.’

August 16, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

The baseball field outside of Shaker Heights High School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a community with a long history promoting racial integration. (Maddie McGarvey for The Washington Post)Comment on this storyComment

This story is adapted from the author’s forthcoming book, “Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity.”

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — David Glasner had been superintendent of schools in this Cleveland suburb for less than a year when a single sentence from a fifth-grader left him shaken.

He was visiting Woodbury Elementary School, home to the district’s fifth- and sixth-graders, in fall 2019. Here, the sorting of students by ability — or perceived ability — began. Advanced students, about half the grade, were sent to the basement for enriched math and English language. The other half stayed put.

Glasner popped his head into a fifth-grade classroom and saw that all but one student were Black. A colleague asked a child sitting in the corner, “Where are the White students?” And the student replied, “The White kids — they’re enriched.”

He didn’t say the White kids were getting enrichment. They were enriched. In this formulation, it wasn’t just a question of classrooms, but actual identity.

“That student has internalized that idea that those White kids are better than him,” Glasner said later. “That one incident was a punch to the gut.”

Glasner had already been grappling with how to change a system that seemed to belie the community’s values. The suburb had been founded at the turn of the 20th century as an elite, explicitly racist enclave for wealthy families escaping the city. But beginning in the 1950s, Black and White families came together here to create integrated neighborhoods. They backed busing and drew boundary lines to make schools more integrated, while line drawing in other communities had the opposite intent. Student groups formed to celebrate Black achievement and advance race relations.

But here, as elsewhere, an academic “tracking” system meant White students dominated advanced classes, with regular- and lower-level classes disproportionately occupied by Black students. The disparities resisted various interventions over many years.

At the same time, many families — most of them White — prized the advanced classes and saw them as a pillar of the academic excellence that Shaker Heights also cherished.

Less than a year after that visit to Woodbury, a solution unexpectedly presented itself to Glasner. It was summer 2020, and the district was trying to figure out how to operate in the pandemic — both online and once students returned to buildings. School leaders realized the schedule would be simpler if they eliminated much of the tracking.

It was perhaps the worst time for a change like this. Teaching (and learning) online was already impossibly stressful, and there was no time to train teachers. On the other hand, Glasner and his lieutenants saw a chance to do something difficult that might not present itself again.

Three years later, data suggested some early success. Shaker’s experience would show both the promise of integrating academic tracks, but also its perils — and the high risks that come when major decisions are implemented without community buy-in.

Would Shaker again be a leader in the quest for racial equity, or a cautionary tale?

This trail-blazing suburb has tried for 60 years to tackle race. What if trying isn’t enough?

The rise and fall of tracking

Academic tracking was introduced in the United States in response to the influx of immigrants in the early 1900s — and used to sort students into rigid educational pathways. Certain students were groomed for college and others for trades such as plumbing or secretarial work. By mid-century, most high schools used some form of tracking, though over time it became less rigid.

It consistently resulted in racial disparities. Federal data shows that for 22 percent of White students, calculus is the highest-level math class taken in high school. But the same is true for just 11 percent of Black students and 14 percent of Hispanics. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders top all other races, with nearly half reaching calculus.

In Shaker, as elsewhere, if a student wasn’t in advanced English in seventh and eighth grade, the chance of joining those classes in high school was slim. In math, it was all but impossible. If you didn’t have enriched math in fifth and sixth grade, you probably wouldn’t take pre-algebra in seventh grade, then couldn’t enroll in Algebra 1 in eighth grade and so on.

As such, decisions about math placement made when students were still in elementary school determined whether they could reach calculus by their senior year of high school, a sign of academic rigor that college admissions officers value.

The problem was twofold: Black students were not encouraged to take upper-level classes, despite an open-enrollment program aimed at making sure they had equal access. Meanwhile, White parents actively pushed to get their children into these courses.

“Every White person wanted their kid in advanced, and open enrollment allowed it,” said Glasner, who is White.

“Every White person wanted their kid in advanced, and open enrollment allowed it.”

— David Glasner, superintendent of Shaker Heights schools

In recent years, school districts made racial equity a priority, with new urgency after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Tracked classes, the site of so much inequity, were an obvious target. California considered a new math curriculum that eliminated tracking for most students. School systems in New York City, Boston, San Francisco and Alexandria, Va., changed admission policies in hopes of boosting Black and Hispanic enrollment in elite magnet schools. And districts including Shaker Heights began combining students into mixed-ability classrooms.

In early 2019, after five years as a middle school principal, Glasner, then 40, was named superintendent of the Shaker Heights City School District. Research for his doctoral thesis had bolstered his concerns about tracking, finding students with average ability levels did better when placed in higher-level classes, especially Black students.

When he got the job, Glasner suggested he would promote “incremental change,” perhaps starting with the youngest students. “One thing I’ve learned is it’s really important to bring people along with this change,” he said at the time.

But when the pandemic hit and a decision was needed about the fall schedule, Glasner set aside his concerns about community buy-in. Part of his reasoning was that if tracking remained in place, segregation would worsen. There was a public health imperative to keep students isolated in small groups, so if two students were together for honors math, they would be together for everything else, too. With the support of his principals, Glasner made a major change.

Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses would still be stand-alone offerings in the upper grades of high school, but most classes between fifth and ninth grades would collapse. Honors- and regular-level students would all be taught together at the honors level.

Glasner said a decision on whether to make the change permanent would come later. In his mind, though, he suspected — and hoped — that they were never going back.

In retrospect, even many supporters of detracking said it was a mistake to move this quickly in a pandemic — leaving no time for training teachers, preparing parents or explaining the changes in any real detail.

The district did little to recruit allies who might have helped sell the change. Glasner did not give the Parent Teacher Organization a heads-up or ask for aid explaining or advocating for it. There was no Q&A document posted on the district website, and there was a lot of misunderstanding about the new policy. For instance, many wrongly concluded that AP and IB classes at the high school were disappearing or changing, which they were not.

The district pressed the philosophical case for detracking with scant details about how it would be accomplished.

“People were like, ‘We get the why. We want to understand the how,’” said Sarah Divakarla, a White woman who was PTO co-president.

The combination of online learning and detracking delivered a double serving of anxiety. Stacey Hren, the other PTO co-president, who is also White, heard families complain that classes were too slow and no longer assigned homework. She personally knew of five families who left the district with generic explanations like, “This is just a better fit for us,” which Hren read as “coded White privilege language.”

When asked about families who left, Glasner flipped the question around. What about all the families the old system was failing? He said he was on a call with parents in spring 2021 during which a White parent voiced frustration that her child wasn’t being challenged. But on the same call, he said, a Black parent said, “It’s about time we made a change.”

Still, even some district leaders were dismayed by the early going. Lawrence Burnley, a Black man who joined the Shaker school district in 2022 as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, said the intention was well meaning but the implementation was a mess. “There were parents who value a detracked system but they need it to be done well,” he said. “It was a disaster.”

Criticism came from Black and White families.

“I don’t think it’s fair to have the honors kids in with the, we’ll call them regular kids,” said Adriann Kennedy, a Black woman who graduated from Shaker schools, sent three children through Shaker and now was a primary caregiver for a grandson in elementary school. “The honors kids will be bored or the regular kids left behind.”

Andrew Farkas, who is White, was a high school sophomore in the 2020-2021 school year. He had been on the enriched and advanced track since third grade. Now, in 10th grade, his detracked class was still labeled honors but felt very different.

“There were kids who were just learning at such a different speed than I learned,” he said. In ninth grade, he said, students would be assigned to read 30 pages per night, and his essays would be returned marked up with red pen, and he could see where he’d made mistakes. Now the teacher had students reading the texts aloud during class, and his homework took maybe 10 minutes. “You just get a score. Oh, 95, great, cool, I guess.” He added: “They’re bringing down expectations instead of bringing up expectations.”

John Morris, one of Andrew’s teachers who is also president of the teachers union, knew Andrew’s concerns were shared by some teachers. When teaching at a high level to “students who are motivated and gifted, you can take students places that are extraordinary,” said Morris, who is White. “You can almost step back as a teacher and watch amazing things happen. I’ve seen it.” Now those teachers felt “a loss.”

William Scanlon, a White high school science teacher, thought detracking had great potential but in practice found it impossible. The idea that these classes would be taught at a true honors level was “a joke,” he said.

In ninth-grade honors physical science classes, he said, he used to do complicated problems that required advanced math skills and talk about “the quantum theory of the models of the atoms.”

“There is no chance I could teach that this year,” he said.

The early going was smoother for Erin Mauch, a White English teacher, who worked to create assignments that could be completed in multiple ways. For a unit on graphic novels, for instance, students could choose the more challenging task of creating their own graphic novel, including identifying the elements that make up the format, or they could analyze an existing panel. Both assignments required understanding graphic novels, but one was more ambitious.

As the year came to an end, she noticed that more of her sophomores were opting to take the advanced course offered in 11th grade than was normally the case. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” she said.

John Morris saw the demographic impact immediately. When classes were leveled, his honors English class had 24 students, two of them Black. After the change, 11 of his 21 students in the same honors English class were Black. And he had long offered his multidisciplinary American Experience course with honors and regular students mixed together.

In his American Experience class on a Monday afternoon in spring 2022, racially diverse groups of sophomores spread across the high school library, researching figures and topics from various decades. At one table, the 1960s group was puzzling over Beatlemania, while over at the ’90s table, they were considering Bill Clinton and the advent of email. “Who is Bob Dole?” someone asked. No one seemed to know, but they were looking him up. Every group was engaged in conversation, laughing and having fun together. It was a class that looked like Shaker.

“It’s just super fun,” said Grace Sheets, a White girl. They weren’t friends before the class, she said. “Now we are.”

The one group of teachers who got formal coaching on detracking (albeit after the new system began) were middle school math teachers, who arguably faced the toughest challenge because students were enrolled in classes even if they had not successfully completed the precursor courses. Plus many were learning online.

Their mandate was to collapse a year and a half of math into one year to prepare all students for the advanced track in high school. To help, the district hired a consulting firm, West Wind Education Policy. Teachers said sessions dealt more with the underlying philosophy and moral urgency of detracking and less with the nuts and bolts of teaching a diverse classroom. One math teacher rolled her eyes when asked if West Wind had been helpful.

Asked whether teachers were readied for this moment, Glasner ducked the question. “I’m not sure there’s any amount of preparation that would make every teacher feel prepared,” he said.

Teachers were trying their best to manage deleveled classes with the tools they had.

One morning in spring 2022, almost two years into the detracking initiative, seventh-grade math teacher Karlee Robinson, a young White woman with a deep reserve of energy, greeted her students with the enthusiasm of a coach on the eve of a big game. “You ready to rock-and-roll? You got everything you need?” she asked as students filed into Room 321 of Shaker Heights Middle School.

She asked students to close their eyes and give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down as to whether they understood the lesson from yesterday. It was a way of checking in without embarrassing anyone, and most of the thumbs pointed up. For the next fifty minutes, she walked a line, pushing certain students to deepen their knowledge while helping others keep up.

Their first task was to list on a piece of paper every topic they could remember learning from the year. One White girl quickly ran out of space: probability, exponents, integers, order of operations, volume, decimals, and on and on. A Black boy sitting next to her stared out the window, having written nothing on his page. “You didn’t write anything?” the girl said to him, glancing at his page. “Wow.” And that prompted him to start writing.

Robinson divided the class into stations, each of which offered a different type of review. At one, students could pick among three worksheets. They were all mazes that required solving a problem to move to the next step, but they could choose worksheets with one-step, two-step or multi-step problems.

“At the beginning of the year, remember how we talked about a growth mind-set? We challenge our brains,” Robinson told the group seated around a circular table in the corner. Most kids took the hardest worksheet, the multi-step version. One girl took the two-step option and slowly but steadily worked her way through it. Another student, clearly less engaged, kept tipping back his chair and staring at nothing in particular. He took the one-step sheet and worked on it a bit, with the teacher offering help in exactly the same tone as she used for every other student in the group.

It was an example of the type of high-ceiling, low-floor exercises that are critical to mixing kids in a class. The boy doing the one-step problems seemed miles away from what anyone would consider honors math work. But that didn’t stop others in his group from challenging themselves. Maybe he picked up something from being around more engaged students that he wouldn’t have otherwise. And this small group had something that traditional honors courses have not had. It looked a lot like Shaker: two White girls, one White boy, three Black boys and one Black girl.

In an eighth-grade classroom, most of the White students in the room were seventh-graders accelerated into eighth-grade math — an accommodation offered for some advanced students.

Tasked with filling out a worksheet matching various formulas to graphs, one Black eighth-grader was struggling. The girl next to her, a White seventh-grader named Ellie, stepped in to gently explain it.

“Which one is positive?” Ellie said, pointing to the options. “What one is negative? … Yeah, there you go. Perfect. … It’s positive and there’s only one positive left. … Yeah, that’s right.” The older girl said that she understood it better after the one-on-one help.

Ellie said coaching someone else helped her understand the material better herself: “When explaining it, it gets that imprint in your head.”

By summer 2023, district officials saw evidence that detracking was producing positive academic results.

District data showed that the number of students of all races taking AP classes in high school rising. The number of Black students taking at least one AP course nearly doubled from 53 in 2018-2019 to 98 in 2022-2023. John Moore, director of curriculum, said it was too soon to say whether that change related to detracking, but he did credit a renewed push at the high school to encourage more Black students to try these classes.

Fears that the changes would drive some families away appeared to be mostly unfounded. In the past two years, after an enrollment drop closely related to the pandemic, the number of students declined but only slightly and in line with long-term demographic trends.

Most compelling, Moore said, were changes in math scores of eighth-graders in classes like the one Ellie took.

Before the change, very few Black students took Algebra 1 in eighth grade; afterward, almost everyone did. In spring 2021, after the first year of detracking, 44 percent of Black students demonstrated competency in algebra in end-of-year testing, a requirement for high school graduation. Two years later, in spring 2023, that rose to 51 percent.

It was still only half the students. Yet under the old system, most of them would never have even been in the class or taken the test in eighth grade.

“This is truly, truly remarkable,” Moore told the school board in July. “While we certainly have room to grow and we are committed to that, I really think this is a celebratory moment.”

Still, the district has a long way to go, with more teacher training needed to help make this new system work, said Burnley, the DEI director. He is encouraged by early progress, and finds “some reason for optimism” today. But he was cautious about declaring victory: “There’s a lot of work yet to be done.”

Story editing by Adam B. Kushner. Photo editing by Mark Miller. Copy editing by Mike Cirelli. Design by Jennifer C. Reed.

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By Erik Sherman

July 07, 2023 at 07:48 AM

Investors snap up not just the newest high tech, but the foundational old-school variety, which could influence HVAC proptech.

A lot of attention in proptech has been on companies that monitor and control HVAC systems. The reason is that owners spend a lot of money on cooling, heating, and ventilation, which is ripe for new ways to lower costs while reducing carbon footprints, for an ESG advantage.

But all this depends on the actual HVAC systems in buildings, that specialty software and hardware look to control. As the site PE Hub noted, a growing number of private equity companies have developed a taste for the industry. “The fast-growing HVAC business is increasingly regarded as a non-discretionary expenditure, the sector is highly fragmented, and its business model generates recurring revenues,” PE firms told the publication.

Those who install, repair, and modify HVAC systems are likely to be seen as good sources to suggest which of the more advanced systems are worth looking at. Ultimately, they could become major influences on the directions building owners take, affecting an important part of the proptech industry.

Here are some of the deals that have happened so far this year:

Graycliff Partners invested in Republic Electric Company, a “distributor of HVAC and electrical equipment and related components for use in residential, commercial, and industrial applications” that was founded in 1916, according to the firm. “The company supplies over 40,000 different products including residential and commercial HVAC systems, switch gear, controls, and lighting solutions, as well as related parts and tools. The company also provides logistical support, training, technical assistance, and other value-add services with a focus on customer service, delivery speed, reliability, and product availability.”

Alternative investment firm Investcorp took a majority investment in Shearer Supply, “one of the nation’s largest independent distributors of HVAC equipment, parts and supplies serving over 5,500 customers from 22 branches across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana.”

Lower middle-market private equity firm Huron Capital’s portfolio company Exigent Holdco, “a provider of mission-critical HVAC, plumbing, and other mechanical system repair, maintenance, and replacement services,” acquired JPG Plumbing & Mechanical Services Inc. and ThermaServe Inc. “JPG is a union plumbing and mechanical service company based in Jessup, Maryland, providing plumbing, mechanical, HVAC and industrial vacuum services to commercial, industrial, government and municipal customers in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area (“the DMV”). ThermaServe is a union mechanical service company based in Jacksonville, Florida, focused on repair, retrofit and maintenance of chillers and other HVAC systems to customers in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia.”

Another lower middle-market PE firm, Sound Partners, acquired Marathon HVAC Service, “a leading residential HVAC company based in Los Angeles, CA. This marks Sound Partners’ second platform in the HVAC space, following the acquisition of Tradewinds Mechanical, LLC, a leader in commercial HVAC-R in Las Vegas, NV.”

Service Champions Group, a “platform provider of Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning services announced today that it has finalized an agreement to acquire Fetch-A-Tech Plumbing Heating Air, a revered Las Vegas Valley mainstay serving a broad base of over 70,000 customers.”

Growth-oriented PE firm Trinity Hunt Partners made a majority investment in Alliance Group, “a leading provider of commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system services.”

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Solano Real Estate Scene: Jim Porter

CALHFA launched the “Dream for All” down payment assistance program this week and has $300 million available for first-time homebuyers with incomes under $215,000 per year and FICO scores above 680. I have read all of the policies and Received a telephone briefing with our contact at CALHFA and now feel like I have all the answers to my questions.

CALHFA has been our go-to source for first down payment assistance for homebuyers for years, but this new stock program is the first of its kind and for some buyers it’s a dream come true.

For my fellow skeptics, I want you all to know that unlike some of the crazy adjustable rate loans that were made between 2003 and 2007 that allowed buyers to buy an $800,000 home without a penny out of their pocket and with no proof of income , the Dream for All program is different. The Dream for All program requires a FICO minimum score of 660 for low income (80% of the AMI) and 680 for income levels up to $215,000 in Solano County, along with an overall debt ratio of no more than 45% and a desktop loan by Fannie Mae approval.

Here’s a snapshot scenario of how it works and who it can help:

Let’s say we have a teacher and a nurse, and this 30-year-old couple makes $180,000 a year, rent $3,500 a month with a couple of kids, 700 FICO, $70,000 in student loan debt at $600 a month and none other debts. a whopping $20,000 in savings, a few small $401,000 plans and no gift money from family.

This stock program will allow them to buy a home for $800,000. The state will loan them $160,000 for the 20% down payment, with a 20% appreciation agreement that obliges the buyer to pay back the $160,000 plus 20% appreciation if they sell the home. The first mortgage loan as of this week would be a 30-year fixed rate loan with no PMI at 6.375% with a lending fee of up to 2%, giving an estimated APR of 6.55%.

CALHFA informed me that after 12 months they will subordinate their second position once for the homeowner to refinance at a lower interest rate with no payout and as this is so new further restrictions may follow.

As early as the mid to late 1980s, private equity investors became an option for buyers in the high-end coastal markets, where wealthy investors would partner with young, high-income couples for homes in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo. The investor would make the 20% down payment and the children would pay the mortgage and receive the home with an agreement to sell the home in five to seven years and split the equity growth 50-50.

This California program allows a buyer to live in the home for 30 years before repayment is required. After the 30-year first mortgage is paid off, a balloon payment of $160,000 plus 20% of gross equity becomes due and payable.

Let’s assume the value of the house in 30 years is $1.4 million. The children, who are now 60, must pay the original $160,000 plus 20% of the $600,000 equity through a loan or by selling the home and pay $280,000 to the state of California. The equity share partner is not responsible for 20% of the installation bill or any other repairs and DIY done over the 30 years.

Another thing to consider is that if the buyer sells the house in a few years, the state will receive 20% of the gross equity and will not have to contribute to the cost of the sale for commissions, repairs and closing costs. The best way to look at this program and $800,000 scenario is to think of it as a $160,000 loan with an equity participation agreement instead of traditional guaranteed interest payments.

I expect the $300 million will sell out in less than six months so get your kids checked out ASAP or better yet give me a call and I’ll show you how to get your kids the $160,000 for the down payment because I’m sure they would prefer to be an equity partner with you.

This is a no-brainer program that is making homes more affordable for thousands of first-time home buyers willing to partner with California. The total payment for the above nurse and teacher would be $4,940 per month, including property taxes and homeowners insurance, assuming the property tax rate is 1.25% annually and the home is not in a fire or flood area.

Jim Porter, NMLS no. 276412, is Branch Manager and Senior Loan Advisor for Solano Mortgage, NMLS no. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS no. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.

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SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16, 2022–(BUSINESS WIRE)–San Francisco Equity Partners (SFEP), a private equity firm focused exclusively on partnering with lower middle market companies across the consumer value chain, announced today that it has acquired DGS Retail (DGS), a leading provider of décor, signage, fixtures, displays and other critical products to customers in the grocery, retail, foodservice and consumer brand end markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

From its origin as a small signage-focused business, DGS now manages a skilled workforce across multiple operating divisions and facilities that provide design, procurement, manufacturing and installation services across multiple product categories. The company provides a single source for a broad range of offerings to help customers define and improve their image, environment and consumer experience within brick-and-mortar locations.

“DGS has an impressive track record of growth built on strong, long-term relationships with a large and diverse base of national and regional customers,” said SFEP Partner David Mannix. “The DGS team has built a broad set of capabilities through both organic growth and synergistic acquisitions, which enable the company to compete and win in a large and extremely fragmented market.”

“SFEP’s experience working with both consumer brands and business-to-business companies serving consumer end markets makes this an ideal partnership for us,” said DGS CEO Peter Stevens. “Partnering with SFEP will give DGS greater access to operational resources and capital to drive growth.”

The acquisition of DGS exemplifies SFEP’s commitment to partnering with leading B2B companies serving large consumer end markets. “Through a unique combination of consumer industry experience and our operationally intensive investment approach, we are able to deliver compelling outcomes for our stakeholders,” said SFEP Managing Partner Scott Potter. “We believe DGS has tremendous growth potential and we’re excited to partner with Peter and his exceptional team.”

Story continues

About DGS Retail

DGS is a leading provider of décor, signage, fixtures, displays and other critical products to the grocery, retail, foodservice and consumer brand end markets. DGS’ operations span four divisions and over 400,000 square feet across five facilities in Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin and California. The company provides a broad range of solutions and is one of only a few companies that can deliver décor, signage, fixtures, and displays at scale to national and large regional customers. For more information, visit www.customretailbydgs.com.

About San Francisco Equity Partners

San Francisco Equity Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on partnering with lower middle market companies across the consumer value chain. To each of its partner companies, SFEP serves as an extension of the management team and provides both extensive operating experience and a broad network of relationships across the consumer products landscape. For more information, please visit www.sfequitypartners.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221116005171/en/

Contacts

Jeff Fox
The Blueshirt Group (for San Francisco Equity Partners)
415-828-8298
jeff@blueshirtgroup.com

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PHILADELPHIA & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Comcast hosted a Digital Equity Summit in San Francisco. The gathering brought together more than 100 executives, program directors, community leaders, public officials, and other key stakeholders from around the Golden State working to close the digital divide and create digital equity. The goals of the summit were to highlight best practices; learn more about current and future needs of vulnerable communities; and identify challenges, solutions, and available funding resources. The summit also served as a moment to celebrate the work of Comcast’s valued digital equity partners across California, who worked throughout the pandemic to help drive Internet adoption and provide digital literacy training for those in need.

In addition, the company announced it has exceeded its expanded goal to launch 1,250 Lift Zones before the end of this year. Comcast’s award-winning Lift Zones program provides free WiFi access in neighborhood community centers nationwide. Since September 2020, Lift Zones have enabled nearly six million free WiFi user sessions for students, veterans, seniors, and adults.

According to a consumer survey of users who visited a Lift Zone:

• 4 in 10 report they would not have had Internet access without the Lift Zone.

• 50% of low-income households in major Comcast markets are within walking distance of a lift zone.

• 58% of Lift Zone users strongly believe that the site helps them achieve more.

• 58% report the Lift Zone reduces stress with studying, working remotely, and/or managing tasks online.

• 56% say the Lift Zone is critical for success at school, work, and/or managing tasks online.

• 92 percent of sites report that being a Lift Zone helps them increase digital equity in their communities.

The Lift Zones program is part of Comcast’s Project UP – a comprehensive initiative to advance digital equity and build a future of unlimited possibilities. Backed by a $1 billion commitment, Project UP will help reach tens of millions of people with the skills, resources, and opportunities needed to succeed in a digital world.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity right now to help connect the unconnected,” said Broderick Johnson, EVP Digital Equity and EVP Public Policy, Comcast Corporation. “Working together between Comcast, our nonprofit partners, and the state and federal government, we will connect more households to the Internet and help even more people take advantage of critical resources such as the federal Affordable Connectivity Program and digital skills training.”

“Comcast’s continued partnership and dedication to our communities have resulted in allowing more students, children, seniors, and families to get connected to the Internet,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “Public private partnerships like these allow us to ensure that all of our communities have access to services they need to thrive.”

Comcast’s Lift Zones were initially created in partnership with city leaders and nonprofit partners to help keep students connected to schools during the early stages of the pandemic. These digital navigators helped countless communities at a time when they needed it the most. Even as students return to their classrooms, Comcast continues to see strong demand for Lift Zones that serve underrepresented populations and offer an array of digital literacy programs, access to online healthcare services, workforce development training, and digital navigator support.

“Thanks to Comcast, we’ve been able to connect many of our families to the Internet with high-speed WiFi to support a dynamic learning environment for their children,” said Gloria Corral, President and CEO of Parent Institute for Quality Education. “Today’s Digital Equity Summit confirms Comcast’s commitment to the communities we serve. I am eager to see how today’s conversation will improve and help support the lives of the children and families.”

In addition to the Lift Zone program, which earlier this year won SXSW’s “People’s Choice Award,” Comcast is proud to participate in the Federal Government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). ACP provides eligible households with a $30/month subsidy that can be applied toward their Internet service. When used to pay for Comcast’s Internet Essentials service, home broadband Internet is effectively free.

Powered by a Comcast Business solution, the company has installed more than 150 Lift Zones across the state of California. To find a Lift Zone near you, please visit: https://internetessentials.com/learningsearchpage and for additional information on Project UP, please visit corporate.comcast.com/impact/project-up.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. We are principally focused on connectivity, aggregation, and streaming with 57 million customer relationships across the United States and Europe. We deliver broadband, wireless, and video through our Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky brands; create, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, Universal Studio Group, Sky Studios, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, multiple cable networks, Peacock, NBCUniversal News Group, NBC Sports, Sky News, and Sky Sports; and provide memorable experiences at Universal Parks and Resorts in the United States and Asia. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.

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San Francisco-based middle-market private equity firm Gryphon Investors announced Monday it has acquired Ed’s Supply Company Inc.

Financial terms of the deal for the Nashville-based wholesale distributor of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R) equipment, parts and supplies company were not disclosed in a release.

Founded in 1957 and with its main office located in downtown’s Pie Town district, Ed’s Supply operates 19 locations in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Courtesy of Ed’s Supply

Gryphon plans to operate the HVAC/R company as an independent division of its Heritage Distribution Holdings platform, which recently rebranded from Wittichen Supply Holding Company.

Steve Byram, former president of Ed’s Supply, will become an adviser to the Heritage Distribution Holdings management team. His son Tucker Byram, most recently vice president of operations, will serve as president. In addition, the current management team will remain with the company.

Ed’s Supply seems to retain its name. Of note, the company also owns the property (located at 711 Sixth Ave. S.) from which the business operates. It is unclear if Ed’s Supply might now attempt to sell that property, as company officials could not be reached for comment.

“We are delighted to become part of Gryphon’s Heritage Distribution Holdings platform with its broad financial and operational resources,” Steve Byram said in the release. “As part of a larger organization with a reputation for superior customer service, Ed’s Supply will continue to deliver premium service as we take advantage of additional growth opportunities.”

Gryphon Investors has managed more than $8.3 billion of equity investments and capital since 1997. The company focuses on investments of $50 million to $300 million in portfolio companies with enterprise values ​​ranging from approximately $100 million to $600 million.

The post Non-public fairness agency acquires native HVAC firm | M&A appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan 31, 2022–

Audax Private Equity (“Audax”) today announced the creation of Renovo Home Partners (“Renovo” or the “Company”), a newly established platform providing home repair and remodel products and services.

Based in Dallas, Texas, Renovo Home Partners is a direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) provider of repair and remodeling services focused on high-volume quick-turn bath, window, siding, roofing, and other remodeling services. The Company was formed through the combination of three regional remodeling businesses: Dreamstyle, Remodel USA, and Alure Home Improvements. Through its growing network of brands, Renovo’s platform provides a full range of products, installation services, and premier customer service experience to homeowners throughout the United States. Today, Renovo operates primarily in the west coast and mountain west, mid-Atlantic, and northeast regions, with a vision to expand nationwide. Built on a culture of performance and continuous improvement, the Renovo platform provides access to peer experience and insight as well as the necessary infrastructure, processes, and tech-enabled resources to help partners thrive.

“We believe the DTC home improvement market is well suited for Audax’ Buy & Build strategy, and we plan to work to scale rapidly,” said Jay Mitchell, Managing Director at Audax Private Equity. “We see an exciting opportunity to invest in and support the brands, with the goal of helping to accelerate Renovo’s growth trajectory, broaden its existing product portfolio, and expand into new geographic areas through greenfields and complete targeted acquisitions. We’re thrilled to partner with CEO John Dupuy and the entire team as this newly formed entity takes shape.”

“Given the long-term success of the three brands, we saw significant potential in combining the businesses under one umbrella to create a larger, more diversified company and ultimately working to become one of the nation’s leading DTC home repair and remodel services company,” said John Dupuy, Chief Executive Officer of Renovo Home Partners. “In seeking to find a partner to help us bring our vision to life, Audax’ track record of helping companies scale and capitalize on their growth strategies was a perfect fit for our needs at this stage in the company’s lifecycle. We believe this investment will help to achieve our goals and provide significant benefits and opportunities to all of Renovo’s stakeholders, most notably our customers and employees. We’re proud to be a part of the Audax family and look forward to a successful and lengthy partnership.”

Ropes & Gray LLP and Fredrikson & Byron PA served as legal counsel to Audax.

About Renovo Home Partners

Based in Dallas, Texas, Renovo Home Partners is a Direct-to-Consumer (“DTC”) platform providing a full range of exceptional home repair and remodel products and services to homeowners across the United States. As a growing national network, Renovo Home Partners recognizes that businesses succeed by understanding their customers and developing the specialized expertise to best serve them. With multiple leading brands under one management team, Renovo Home Partners aims to centralize back office operations and invest in best-in-class technology capabilities to drive commercial alignment among regionally focused businesses today, with the opportunity to cross-sell product offerings at national scale in the near term. With a strong commitment to superior customer service, outstanding product quality, and expert installation, Renovo Home Partners is proud to service its homeowner customer base. For more information, visit the Renovo Home Partner website: www.renovohomepartners.com

About Audax Private Equity

Audax Group is a leading alternative investment manager with offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. Since its founding in 1999, the firm has raised over $30 billion in capital across its Private Equity and Private Debt businesses. Audax Private Equity has invested over $8 billion in more than 150 platforms and over 1050 add-on companies, and is currently investing out of its $3.5 billion, sixth private equity fund. Through its disciplined Buy & Build approach, Audax Private Equity seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value. With more than 300 employees, Audax is a leading capital partner for North American middle market companies. For more information, visit the Audax Private Equity website: www.audaxprivateequity.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005284/en/

CONTACT: Media: Audax

Sard Verbinnen & Co

Julie Rudnick and Catherine Livingston

Audax-SVC@SARDVERB.com Renovo

info@renovohomepartners.com

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA MASSACHUSETTS NEW YORK TEXAS

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: FINANCE OTHER CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RESIDENTIAL BUILDING & REAL ESTATE CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY

SOURCE: Audax Private Equity

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

PUB: 01/31/2022 08:00 AM / DISC: 01/31/2022 08:02 AM

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005284/en

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

The post Audax Non-public Fairness Pronounces Creation of New House Companies Platform, Renovo House Companions | Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan 31, 2022–

Audax Private Equity (“Audax”) today announced the creation of Renovo Home Partners (“Renovo” or the “Company”), a newly established platform providing home repair and remodel products and services.

Based in Dallas, Texas, Renovo Home Partners is a direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) provider of repair and remodeling services focused on high-volume quick-turn bath, window, siding, roofing, and other remodeling services. The Company was formed through the combination of three regional remodeling businesses: Dreamstyle, Remodel USA, and Alure Home Improvements. Through its growing network of brands, Renovo’s platform provides a full range of products, installation services, and premier customer service experience to homeowners throughout the United States. Today, Renovo operates primarily in the west coast and mountain west, mid-Atlantic, and northeast regions, with a vision to expand nationwide. Built on a culture of performance and continuous improvement, the Renovo platform provides access to peer experience and insight as well as the necessary infrastructure, processes, and tech-enabled resources to help partners thrive.

“We believe the DTC home improvement market is well suited for Audax’ Buy & Build strategy, and we plan to work to scale rapidly,” said Jay Mitchell, Managing Director at Audax Private Equity. “We see an exciting opportunity to invest in and support the brands, with the goal of helping to accelerate Renovo’s growth trajectory, broaden its existing product portfolio, and expand into new geographic areas through greenfields and complete targeted acquisitions. We’re thrilled to partner with CEO John Dupuy and the entire team as this newly formed entity takes shape.”

“Given the long-term success of the three brands, we saw significant potential in combining the businesses under one umbrella to create a larger, more diversified company and ultimately working to become one of the nation’s leading DTC home repair and remodel services company,” said John Dupuy, Chief Executive Officer of Renovo Home Partners. “In seeking to find a partner to help us bring our vision to life, Audax’ track record of helping companies scale and capitalize on their growth strategies was a perfect fit for our needs at this stage in the company’s lifecycle. We believe this investment will help to achieve our goals and provide significant benefits and opportunities to all of Renovo’s stakeholders, most notably our customers and employees. We’re proud to be a part of the Audax family and look forward to a successful and lengthy partnership.”

Ropes & Gray LLP and Fredrikson & Byron PA served as legal counsel to Audax.

About Renovo Home Partners

Based in Dallas, Texas, Renovo Home Partners is a Direct-to-Consumer (“DTC”) platform providing a full range of exceptional home repair and remodel products and services to homeowners across the United States. As a growing national network, Renovo Home Partners recognizes that businesses succeed by understanding their customers and developing the specialized expertise to best serve them. With multiple leading brands under one management team, Renovo Home Partners aims to centralize back office operations and invest in best-in-class technology capabilities to drive commercial alignment among regionally focused businesses today, with the opportunity to cross-sell product offerings at national scale in the near term. With a strong commitment to superior customer service, outstanding product quality, and expert installation, Renovo Home Partners is proud to service its homeowner customer base. For more information, visit the Renovo Home Partner website: www.renovohomepartners.com

About Audax Private Equity

Audax Group is a leading alternative investment manager with offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. Since its founding in 1999, the firm has raised over $30 billion in capital across its Private Equity and Private Debt businesses. Audax Private Equity has invested over $8 billion in more than 150 platforms and over 1050 add-on companies, and is currently investing out of its $3.5 billion, sixth private equity fund. Through its disciplined Buy & Build approach, Audax Private Equity seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value. With more than 300 employees, Audax is a leading capital partner for North American middle market companies. For more information, visit the Audax Private Equity website: www.audaxprivateequity.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005284/en/

CONTACT: Media: Audax

Sard Verbinnen & Co

Julie Rudnick and Catherine Livingston

Audax-SVC@SARDVERB.com Renovo

info@renovohomepartners.com

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA MASSACHUSETTS NEW YORK TEXAS

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: FINANCE OTHER CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RESIDENTIAL BUILDING & REAL ESTATE CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY

SOURCE: Audax Private Equity

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

PUB: 01/31/2022 08:00 AM / DISC: 01/31/2022 08:02 AM

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005284/en

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

The post Audax Non-public Fairness Broadcasts Creation of New Residence Companies Platform, Renovo Residence Companions | Enterprise appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Grant Thornton LLP, a leading accounting, tax and advisory firm, has appointed Melanie Krygier to lead growth in private equity tax. Krygier, a San Francisco-based partner and head of Grant Thornton’s M&A Tax Services West Coast Practice, will join the private equity leadership team and will focus on assisting private equity clients with mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

“Melanie’s exceptional tax knowledge and long history of helping private equity investors and their portfolio companies through M&A will be incredibly valuable to every client she works with,” said Carlos Ferreira, Grant Thornton’s National Managing Partner of Private Equity. “The private equity space is constantly evolving, and the pandemic has only accelerated that development. This space requires the creative, self-confident and determined leadership that Melanie offers. ”

Krygier has more than 15 years of experience serving public and private companies in a variety of industries. After seven successful years with another national consulting firm, she moved to Grant Thornton in 2013. For almost 10 years she mainly focused on advising on M&A. Specifically, Krygier has carried out due diligence on the buyer and seller side as well as tax structuring and modeling for customers who are considering potential sales, purchases or restructuring.

Krygier has also assisted clients navigating tax-free restructurings, particularly those related to special purpose vehicle (SPAC) transactions. Her in-depth transactional knowledge will be beneficial to companies that need a skilled hand to guide them through the often complex tax implications of a merger or acquisition.

According to a recent M&A survey conducted by Grant Thornton, the surge in SPACs is likely to continue. Additionally, the recent surge in M&A activity could be a catalyst for new challenges, including a new type of earnout dispute. These results show the importance of a skilled executive like Krygier.

“As M&A activity becomes more prevalent, it is critical for any business to get the most value from what can be a very complex and labor-intensive process,” said Rimma Tabakh, executive partner at Grant Thornton’s San Francisco office. “Melanie will provide detailed and reliable guidance at a time when companies need her more than ever.”

“She is an inspiring and highly collaborative professional,” continued Tabakh, “who will nurture all of our team members in San Francisco and be a valuable role model for women in a historically male-dominated space.”

In this new management position, Krygier succeeds Chris Schenkenberg, who, as the national managing partner of Regional Tax Business Lines, has taken on a new role for the firm’s tax leadership team. Krygier earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Michigan State University.

“Melanie is a talented and knowledgeable leader with an innate ability to boldly break new ground and have an immediate and lasting impact on professional services,” said Renato Zanichelli, Grant Thornton’s National Managing Partner of Tax Services. “Her track record in delivering powerful business solutions and effective tax strategies makes her the perfect person to lead this team and help our clients succeed.”

To learn more about Grant Thornton’s private equity and M&A services, visit www.grantthornton.com/industries/private-equity and www.grantthornton.com/services/advisory-services/mergers-and-acquisitions.

About Grant Thornton LLP

Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) was founded in Chicago in 1924 and is the US member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world’s leading organizations of independent accounting, tax and consulting firms. Grant Thornton, with sales of $ 1.97 billion and more than 50 offices, works with a variety of dynamic public and private corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, and civil and religious organizations.

“Grant Thornton” refers to Grant Thornton LLP, the US member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). GTIL and the member companies are not a global partnership. The services are provided by the member companies. GTIL and its member firms are not agents and do not undertake or be liable for any acts or omissions of the other. More information is available at grantthornton.com.

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