Cerberus Capital Management
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cerberus Capital Management LP is large privately owned hedge fund. The firm is based in New York, N.Y., and run by 45-year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former Vice President Dan Quayle has been a prominent Cerberus spokesperson and runs one of its international units.
Founded in 1992, Cerberus invests primarily in companies which are near bankruptcy and hopes to make the businesses it acquires profitable.
The company has been a voracious acquirer of businesses over the past several years and now includes sizeable investments in sportswear, paper products, military services, real estate, energy, retail, glassmaking, transportation, and building products, Its holdings amounted to $16 billion in 2005.
On October 19, 2006, John W. Snow, President George W. Bush's second United States Secretary of the Treasury, was named chairman of Cerberus.
[edit] Notable acquisitions
- Paper products— The company acquired MeadWestvaco's paper business for $2.3B in 2005 and renamed it NewPage Corporation.
- Government Services(Military, Energy, and Food&Drug)— owns IAP Worldwide Services, which bought Johnson Controls' World Services division in February 2005, and Netco Government Services.
- Real Estate— Through investment affiliate Blackacre Capital, the company has been making direct equity investments and mezzanine and first mortgages on hotel and commercial real estate. It also controls Miami Beach, Fla.-based LNR Property, a large real estate development and investment firm through subsidiary Riley Property. Cerberus also controls Kyo-ya, a Japan based group of entities that owns several Starwood managed assets in California, Hawaii and Florida.
- Retail— Cerberus purchased 655 of the 2,500 Albertson's, Inc., grocery stores, forming Albertsons LLC of Boise, Idaho, in June 2006. They also own Mervyn's department stores, which was acquired from Target Corp.
- Transportation— Acquired bankrupt ANC Rental, owner of the National and Alamo car rental chains, for $230 million in October 2003 and purchased 45% of DaimlerChrysler's aircraft leasing business in May 2005. Also acquired North American Bus Industries, Optima Bus, and Blue Bird Corp. in the bus manufacturing sector.
- Financial services— General Motors sold a 51% stake in its GMAC finance unit to an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management. GM expects to receive $14 billion over the next three years from the sale of General Motors Acceptance Corp. In December 2006, Cerberus aquired Austrias BAWAG for €3.2 billion.
- Firearms— Acquired Bushmaster Firearms, Inc., from Windham native Dick Dyke for an undisclosed sum in April 2006.
Other holdings of the investment group include Formica, Inc., and the Aozora Bank in Japan; U.S. tech firm SSA Global Technologies, and cable operator Galaxy Cable.
[edit] References
- Kelley, Matt. "Cerberus business network reaches far." USA Today. 19 January 2006.
- Thornton, Emily. "What's Bigger Than Cisco, Coke, Or McDonald's?" Business Week October 2005.
- Stringer, Kortney. "Car Rental Companies are sold." Wall Street Journal. 16 October 2003.
- "Acquisition of LNR Property Corporation Completed" Business Wire. 3 February 2005.
- "Hirsch, Jerry. "Albertsons To Be Sold, Divided Into 3." Los Angeles Times. 24 January 2006.
