“From the first time we met the TorQuest team, it was obvious we had strong alignment, and a shared vision for how to build value in this business.”
When the owners of VersaCold were facing a broken sale process, one where TorQuest did not move forward after the first round, based on a long and trusted relationship with the vendors, they came back to see if we could meet their target price under a short exclusivity window. This relationship ultimately gave us the time required to conduct proper due diligence, ultimately settling at a value that was a positive outcome for all parties.
Being Canadian mattered during this process, as we were able to take the time needed to get to know the business, align with new management on the path forward, and construct an attractive financing package with our Canadian bank partners that supported our interest. We also had the ability to travel to see each of the Company’s facilities coast-to-coast, while many others struggled with travel restrictions during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under the leadership of Mike Arcamone, VersaCold’s President & CEO, we put in place an experienced Board of Directors with deep industry knowledge, augmented the management team, continued the turnaround strategy the Company was pursuing which improved the business’ quality of earnings, and most importantly, completed a large acquisition to purchase nine warehouses the Company was leasing under off-market lease terms. This real estate transaction was a key factor in our ability to reposition the asset for sale to a strategic acquiror or infrastructure investor. Over our ownership we spent time building a relationship with the ultimate acquiror, Lineage Logistics. We were extremely pleased in our ability to work together with Lineage to create a great outcome for TorQuest’s Fund V limited partners, co-investors, and management partners, while also leveraging that transaction to create an ability to invest additional Fund V capital into Lineage’s global leading and highly exciting cold storage business.