TowerBrook recaps Auto Europe

by Kelly Holman
The Deal.com - Posted 03:28 EST, 24, Oct 2005 - Reprinted with permission

TowerBrook Capital Partners LP, the successor to Soros Private Equity Investors LP, has completed the leveraged recapitalization of its portfolio company, Auto Europe LLC, a source familiar with the deal said.

CIBC World Markets Corp. provided $138.6 million of debt to Auto Europe, a Portland, Maine-based rental car company.

The recap enabled TowerBrook to receive $90 million, or 3 times its investment in the company, as part of an overall $120 million shareholder dividend, the source said.

The transaction, which the source said was completed Oct. 12, also allowed Auto Europe to repay existing debt.

TowerBrook, meanwhile, maintained a controlling stake in Auto Europe, which rents cars, jeeps and luxury vehicles in a variety of European countries. The company also books hotel rooms and airline flights for North American, European and Australian travelers.

Officials from TowerBrook and Auto Europe were not immediately available for comment.

TowerBrook, which has offices in New York and London, acquired Auto Europe from U.K.-based travel services company MyTravel Group plc in an $85 million divestiture in December 2003. The private equity firm, which was operating as Soros Private Equity Investors at the time, invested $29.5 million of equity in the deal, a source said.

TowerBrook, headed by co-chief executives Neal Moszkowski and Ramez Sousou, which invests in middle market-sized companies in the U.S. and Western Europe, spun out of financier George Soros' hedge fund operations, Soros Fund Management LLC, in April.

TowerBrook has invested more than $2.2 billion in more than 90 companies. It closed its most recent fund in 2001.

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