VSS Closes on Sale of TRANZACT to White Mountains Insurance Group
NEW YORK – October 13, 2014 – Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a leading global private investment firm focused on the information, business services, healthcare IT, and education industries in North America and Europe, today announced that is has completed the sale of portfolio company TRANZACT to an affiliate of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. (NYSE: WTM), a financial services holding company, for an enterprise valuation of approximately $280 million.
TRANZACT provides end-to-end, performance-driven customer acquisition solutions to leading insurance carriers and is today a market leader in the direct-to-consumer distribution of insurance products. The company serves the health, life, auto and home insurance segments and reaches over 150 million consumers each week. TRANZACT employs a scalable sales force currently comprised of over 700 licensed agents.
“We are proud of the progress the company has made under the leadership of CEO David Graf and the management team,” said Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner at VSS, which was joined in the investment by Wellington Management and Ares Management.
”By sharpening the company’s focus on the insurance sector and making several add-on acquisitions, TRANZACT has grown into a business attractive to investors such as White Mountains. TRANZACT’s direct-to-consumer distribution capabilities should provide continued growth opportunities in the insurance space,” added Trent Hickman, a Managing Director at VSS.
“VSS has been a strong, supportive partner to TRANZACT over the years. We very much look forward to continuing our growth trajectory with White Mountains in the years to come,” said David Graf, CEO of TRANZACT.
Based in Fort Lee, NJ, TRANZACT’s revenue streams are derived from a brand-focused business model that supports the direct-to-consumer distribution capabilities of large insurance companies as well as marketplaces, such as medicaresupplement.com and autoinsurance.com, where consumers can shop for their insurance needs.
Since 1987, VSS has managed six private investment funds with aggregate initial capital commitments totaling over $3 billion, including four equity funds and two structured capital funds. To date, VSS funds have invested in 74 platform companies, which have together completed over 330 add-on acquisitions.
Petsky Prunier Securities LLC acted as financial advisor to VSS and TRANZACT while Lowenstein Sandler LLP provided legal advice.
About Veronis Suhler Stevenson
Veronis Suhler Stevenson (www.vss.com) is a leading private investment firm that invests in the information, business services, healthcare IT, and education industries in North America and Europe. VSS provides capital for buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings and strategic acquisitions to lower middle market companies and management teams with the goal of building companies organically as well as through a focused add-on acquisition program. VSS makes privately-negotiated investments across the capital structure and has the ability to invest in situations requiring control or non-control equity, mezzanine securities and structured equity securities.
About TRANZACT
Based in Fort Lee, NJ, TRANZACT is a market leader in providing end-to-end customer acquisition solutions to the financial services, media and telecommunications sectors. TRANZACT leverages and integrates sophisticated digital, data and direct marketing solutions to deliver qualified leads, fully provisioned sales and robust customer management systems to brands seeking to acquire and manage large numbers of customers.
For more information:
Katrin Lieberwirth
Stanton Public Relations & Marketing
+1 646-502-3548
