Trefethen Capital Partners (TCP) have formed a new venture that will provide capital to operators in the c-store and petroleum retailing industries.
Financing will take the form of sale-leaseback, subordinated debt and preferred equity. Transaction size will range from $10 million to $50 million, and terms will vary depending upon the collateral, credit profile and transaction structure. Proceeds from the financings will be used to fund recapitalizations, acquisitions, joint ventures and capital expenditures.
TCP’s team has extensive experience investing up-and-down the balance sheet in companies in the c-store and petroleum retailing industries, as well as other privately held and publicly traded multi-unit retailers.
William Trefethen, industry veteran and the firm’s managing partner, will lead the firm’s financing initiative. Trefethen previously founded American Commercial Capital, which was sold to Wells Fargo in 2001, and Trefethen & Co, one of the leading investment banks to the c-store industry. Charles Laing, director, and Robert Valentine, senior vice president, also will be involved in the management of the venture.
“Given the exit of many national lenders to the industry, in the context of the current commercial banking environment, participants in the c-store and petroleum retailing industries have available fewer financing options,” Trefethen noted. “In many cases, banks are remargining and/or negatively modifying existing debt terms, thus placing undue stress on otherwise healthy operators. We believe the industry is weathering the recession quite well, and possesses solid fundamentals vis-à-vis other sectors within the broader retail industry.” He added, “TCP and its investors find the c-store sector quite attractive at this point in time.”
Trefethen Capital Partners makes opportunistic private credit and equity investments in operating companies with significant real estate components to their balance sheets and hard real estate assets of various types. Since its inception in 2002, TCP has executed more than $1 billion of principal transactions on behalf of its separate account clients. For more information contact William Trefethen at [email protected]
