Recent News and Announcements from Centre Partners
New York, April 2, 2018 – Centre Partners, a leading middle market private equity firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles, today announced that it has sold its portfolio company U.S. Retirement & Benefits Partners (“USRBP” or the “Company”) to Kohlberg & Company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2008, USRBP is the leading independent provider of technology-enabled benefits and retirement services to the K-12 education, government/municipal, and small- and mid-sized corporate marketplace. The company manages more than $42 billion of assets for more than 2 million clients and facilitates the design and administration of benefits and retirement programs for nearly 3,400 school districts and over 5,000 corporations. During Centre Partners’ ownership, USRBP has achieved rapid growth through more than 40 acquisitions and several organic sales initiatives that have substantially expanded its product offering, distribution and geographic reach.
Bruce Pollack, Managing Partner of Centre Partners, stated, “We are very proud of our successful investment in USRBP. Through our partnership with Bob Dughi and Mark Skinner, we achieved our shared vision of creating the leading independent provider of benefit services and retirement products to the K-12 education market. We wish the team continued success under new ownership.”
Bob Dughi, Executive Chairman of USRBP, commented, “Centre Partners recognized an attractive opportunity to support us in our effort to build a market-leading platform in the retirement sector. By initially focusing on the large, yet highly fragmented K-12 market, we have been able to rapidly scale our business.” The Company’s CEO, Mark Skinner added, “Going forward, we intend to pursue attractive acquisition opportunities in our core market while also utilizing our technology platform to accelerate cross-selling efforts and further expand our service offering into government, municipal and small and mid-sized corporate markets. We are grateful for the support of the Centre Partners team as we move on to another exciting chapter.”
“The sale of USRBP represents the successful execution of our consolidation strategy within the large and highly fragmented retirement and benefits services sector,” said Centre Partners Managing Director Jeff Bartoli. “We assisted the Company in executing an ambitious acquisition strategy, which enabled USRBP to dramatically expand its service offering. Given the strength of its platform, robust pipeline of accretive acquisition opportunities, and compelling cash flow model, USRBP is well-positioned for future success.”
William Blair & Company acted as exclusive financial advisor and Dechert LLP acted as legal counsel to USRBP.
About Centre Partners
Founded in 1986, Centre Partners is a leading middle-market private equity firm focusing on the consumer and healthcare sectors, with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Centre has invested over $2 billion of equity capital in more than 80 transactions since its inception. Centre seeks to partner with founders and management teams to build exceptional businesses. Centre Partners provides management teams access to its unique resources, which includes an extended network of experienced and proven operating executives. Additional information is available at www.centrepartners.com.
About U.S. Retirement & Benefit Partners
Headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, U.S. Retirement & Benefits Partners is the leading independent provider of technology-enabled benefits and retirement services to the K-12 education, government/municipal, and small and mid-sized corporate marketplace. Founded in 2008, USRBP has built a unique platform with an unrivaled competitive position with numerous cross-selling opportunities within its core markets. Today, the company manages more than $42 billion of assets for more than 2 million clients and facilitates the implementation, administration and monitoring of benefits and retirement programs for nearly 3,400 school districts and over 5,000 corporations. USRBP has grown significantly through a combination of organic initiatives as well as over 40 acquisitions, substantially expanding its product offering, distribution and geographic reach. For more information, please visit www.usrbpartners.com.
Contact: Mark Semer or Peter Hill Kekst
(212) 521-4800
mark.semer@kekst.com or peter.hill@kekst.com