Buyout Creates Printing Giant
NEW YORK—Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, an affiliate of Credit Suisse First Boston's Alternative Capital Division (DLJMBP), announced a series of transactions with an aggregate value of approximately $2.2 billion that will create a unique specialty printing and marketing services enterprise under the leadership of Marc Reisch. The transactions encompass the recapitalization of Jostens and the acquisitions of Von Hoffmann Corp. and Arcade Marketing, all three companies currently owned by DLJMBP.
Reisch is currently a senior advisor of KKR and chairman of Yellow Pages Group, Canada's largest telephone directories publisher. He formerly served as the chairman and CEO of the North American division of Quebecor World.
The newly created company will consist of three leaders in specialty printing and marketing services: Jostens Inc., a producer of yearbooks, class rings and graduation products; Von Hoffmann Corp., a printer of educational textbooks and supplemental materials, and its subsidiary Lehigh Press, which specializes in book components and direct marketing print services through Lehigh Direct; and Arcade Marketing, a printer and manufacturer of sampling products for the fragrance, cosmetics, consumer products, and food and beverage industries.
On a combined basis, these businesses generated sales in excess of $1.4 billion in the last 12 months ended March 31, 2004.
The transaction will include KKR's acquisition of Von Hoffmann and Arcade and the contribution of Von Hoffmann and Arcade to Jostens Holdings in exchange for stock of Jostens Holdings, which will then be recapitalized.
Upon completion of these transactions, KKR and DLJMBP will each own a 45 percent stake of Jostens Holdings, which will be renamed. The remaining 10 percent stake will be held by the management team, as well as a small group of existing minority investors in Jostens. The transactions are expected to close this fall and are subject to customary closing conditions.
