Trive Capital the Dallas, Texas based private equity firm is pleased to announce the sale of one of its portfolio companies, Southern Towing Company, LLC, to CC Industries, Inc.
STC, based in Memphis, Tennessee and founded in 1958, is an inland tank barge operator specializing in the transportation of anhydrous ammonia and bulk liquid fertilizer products throughout the Mississippi River System and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The Company also provides towing services for other commodities, including refined petroleum, chemicals, coal, grain, and aggregates.
The Company was acquired by Trive in September 2012. During Trive’s ownership, STC grew its service offering to its customers base, expanded the Company’s management talent and enhanced the fleet, including building several state-of-the-art z-drive vessels. As a result, both sales and earnings grew substantially over the period.
Conner Searcy, Managing Partner at Trive, stated, “We are incredibly grateful to STC’s management team for their partnership and value creation. The combination of strategic capital, operational efficiencies and new growth avenues, led to a significant increase in shareholder value. We wish the STC team well in their new partnership with CCI.”
“During our partnership with Trive, we substantially invested in our company’s fleet alongside our safety and compliance programs to enable us to continue to provide our customers the highest level of service. STC is committed to being the long-term partner of choice for our customers,” said Ed Grimm, President & CEO of STC. “The relationship we have had with Trive was an important step to position STC for continued growth and success in the next chapter with CCI.”
Chris Zugaro, Partner at Trive, commented “We are excited to announce this successful exit for our investors. The outcome of the STC investment is a testament to Trive’s approach of marrying an aggressive operational value creation plan with an involved and collaborative approach shared with a very strong management team.”
About Trive
Trive Capital is a Dallas, Texas based private equity firm managing over $2 billion in capital. Trive focuses on investing equity and debt in what it sees as strategically viable middle-market companies with the potential for transformational upside through operational improvement. We seek to maximize returns through a hands-on partnership that calls for identifying and implementing value creation ideas. The Trive team is comprised of seasoned investment professionals who have been involved in over 70 middle-market transactions representing in excess of $6 billion in revenue across Trive’s targeted industry sectors and situations.
