Yesway announced that it had raised $190 million in new equity in the second half of 2022 to continue funding its successful new store construction program. The majority of the structured equity comes from HPS Investment Partners, a global investment firm with $95 billion of assets under management.
“We are tremendously excited to announce our new partnership with HPS,” said Tom Trkla, chairman and CEO of Yesway. “We are deeply appreciative of the collaborative and accommodating nature of our discussions with HPS that showed a keen understanding of our business and are impressed by the talent of their investment team.”
In the past year, Yesway commenced an aggressive campaign to grow store count and financial performance through the completion of new stores and raze-and-rebuild projects across its portfolio and geographic footprint. Throughout 2022, Yesway completed the construction of 17 new stores and 21 raze-and-rebuild projects at an industry-leading annual return on invested capital. Given the success of the completed projects to date, Yesway plans to construct 28 additional new stores in 2023, the majority of which will be funded using the proceeds of the new equity it has raised.
Yesway was founded in 2015 by Brookwood Financial Partners, a real estate private equity firm that specializes in acquiring and managing value-add commercial real estate and real estate-related operating businesses. Since Yesway’s inception, Brookwood has raised approximately $825 million in equity to effect Yesway’s growth strategy.
Yesway was advised on the transaction by Latham & Watkins, and HPS was advised by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Established in 2015, Yesway is a multi-branded platform that acquires, transforms and enhances portfolios of convenience stores by leveraging expertise in real estate and technology and by implementing data-driven decision-making.