Working at OpenGate Capital | Glassdoor The list is updated frequently, so check . A state claim for wages was filed in the dairys pending Delaware bankruptcy case. Only logged in subscribers of this site will be able to access the shared article. "OpenGate Capital Acquires Philips Business Communications in Brazil," Latin America Venture Capital, 3-18-2010. OpenGate is perhaps best known for its 2008 purchase of the print version of TV Guide for a nominal price plus assumed debt. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. [15] In 2018, OpenGate acquired the Italian stove and fireplace manufacturer Jotul from the European private equity group Ratos. Reporting by Pallavi Ail in Bangalore, Karl Plume in Chicago; editing by Gunna Dickson. But the fact is that weve lost those jobs and nothing has replaced them.. Please prove that you're human. The firm shut down its Fusion Paperboard plant just three years after acquiring it, 18 months after signing a 10-year loan from the state to remain operational, and only a few months after entering into a six-year contract with the local steelworkers union. According to Opengate Capital, the company withheld important documents . Click here. OPENGATE CAPITAL GROUP, LLC, OPENGATE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT . "Investment firm to buy Dean Foods dairy plant," BusinessWeek, 8-15-2011, Esperanza Azteca America launches first program in Los Angeles, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-16/wall_street/29980017_1_private-equity-platinum-equity-pehub, http://www.themiddlemarket.com/maj/2010_25/andrew-nikou-213884-1.html, "Bullied as a Kid, This Founder Now Runs a $5 Billion Company. Federal Civil Lawsuit California Central District Court, Case No. A fully integrated team of origination, investment and operations professionals. Its website says its businesses generate annual revenue of about $3 billion, making it a small player. A bankruptcy trustee subsequently alleged in a court filing that Nikou and OpenGate had obtained the company at a bargain purchase price when the fair value of assets exceeded liabilities by $10.9 million. Barry L. Kasoff, president of Realization Services who served as PennySavers chief restructuring officer, denied the assertion and said the decision to close with little notice was dictated by Capital One. In her letter to OpenGate Capital, Baldwin writes, "Your predatory actions in Wisconsin are a powerful example of the urgent need for these reforms." A copy of Senator Baldwin's letter can be found here and below. Around the same time, it was engaged in negotiations to be acquired by another company. OpenGate closed the PennySaver on May 22 with out warning. OpenGate Capital is a global private equity firm active in the lower middle-market and focused on acquiring corporate carve-outs, divestitures and special situations throughout North America, Western Europe and Latin America. OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, announced today in a joint statement with its portfolio company, Hufcor Inc. ("Hufcor"), the world leader in the design, manufacturing and installation of movable partitions and flexible space management solutions, the appointment of Mr. Koben Miceli as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Coupon mailing company PennySaver USA was in default on its main operating loan for five months before it abruptly shut down on the eve of the Memorial Day weekend, something few of its roughly 680 employees knew before they were put out of work. OpenGate uncovered that the facility was being used by senior local leaders of the Mexican Gulf Cartel, according to a federal complaint filed on June 12 . In October 2019, OpenGate Capital closed on the firm's second institutional fund, OpenGate Capital Partners II, oversubscribed on its original $450 million target, with approximately $585 million in commitments. The legislation will end "the failed experiment of gutting Michigan workers' rights," said one lawmaker. Thermo Fisher Can't Dodge Suit Over Cartel-Plagued Lab With a strategic international presence and a focus on corporate carve . So far, six lawsuits have been filed against OpenGate Capital and/or PennySaver in local and federal courts for failing to notify employees of mass layoffs, according to Richard McCune, a lawyer representing PennySaver employees. OpenGate also faced numerous lawsuits stemming from its dealings at Hamilton Scientific, including not giving employees adequate notice of its Texas plant closure and selling a Mexican plant without disclosing it was harboring a drug cartel. So far, the funds administrators have paid the utility bills of several employees. To me, you dont sign a six-year contract and decide to close a facility.. A court filing by the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings said Golden Guernsey owed $1.5 million because it had violated state labor laws that require 60 days notice to employees of mass layoffs. "Top Dealmaker Andrew Nikou: The founder of Opengate Capital is making a name for himself on reclamation projects," Danielle Fugazy, Mergers & Acquisitions, 12-7-2010. [35][36][37], Nikou is married with children and resides in Nevada.[7]. Post-closing, Open Gate employee Andrew Nikou was appointed as the sole member of Golden Guernsey. OpenGate Capital is a private equity firm with offices in Los Angeles and Paris that strives to acquire and optimize lower middle market businesses throughout North America and Europe. In fact, prosecutors allege, it was the senior Dardens neer-do-well son who had already spent three years in jail on an unrelated stock swindle looking to buy the lad mag. Rein In Private Equity Before It Destroys More Jobs But in some cases, as with PennySaver, external circumstances frustrate our ability to have our investments realize their full potential.. That explanation ignores the blatant injustice done to Hufcor workers, whose woes reflect the influence of predatory private equity, and tells a story of Wall Street run amok. Several lawsuits had been filed claiming OpenGate and did not follow proper protocol under the WARN Act when firing hundreds of employees from both PennySaver and Hamilton Scientific. [1] The firm is focused on the acquisition of lower to middle market businesses that are often privately owned, or non-core divisions of larger companies located around the world. Andrew received a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Southern . Even as hundreds of American workers have suffered from OpenGates schemes, Andrew Nikou, the OpenGate founder and CEO, has not faced any meaningful financial or social consequences for repeated business failures at the hands of his firm. OpenGate has a history of buying companies only to close operations shortly thereafter, leaving communities across the country in the lurch. Unless we do, Hufcor employees wont be the last to suffer at the hands of private equity and its ruthless profiteering. . We have just sent you an email so you can verify your account. OpenGate strategically invests in targeted sectors across five continents utilizing a diverse and experienced team with the ability to connect with business owners around the globe. The firm first gained recognition for the acquisition of TV Guide Magazine in December 2008,[2] and the publication's turn to profitability in the first quarter of 2010.[3]. Employees at other OpenGate-owned companies have voiced similar complaints. OpenGate Capital Realizes Investment in InRule Technology Jul. [5] however, his actions have also drawn substantial criticism, including numerous lawsuits. OpenGate gets sued for alleged WARN Act violations. Maxim sale fraud case rages on after felon misleads investors In 2010, Dean Foods Company, its then owner, sold Golden Guernsey to a private equity company, Open Gate Capital, LLC ("Open Gate"), as part of the settlement of an antitrust lawsuit brought by the United States Department of Justice. Location. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. And in 2010, OpenGate acquired Brazilian-based Philips Business Communications, since renamed Sopho which was merged into Getronics LATAM, and Finland-based KotkaMills, a laminating paper and wood business. [5] After graduating, he worked for the Patent and License Exchange, a start-up financed by Softbank Capital.[5]. OpenGate closed PennySaver on May 22 without warning. LOS ANGELES, October 13, 2022 -- ( BUSINESS WIRE )-- OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, today announced that it has exited its investment in . A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? [14] Also in 2019, OpenGate purchased the UK-based Duraco Specialty Tapes, which then acquired Infinity Tapes the following year. It would. One of the lenders was Andrew Nikous OpenGate Capital, the company that recently sold its TVGM Holdings (owner of TV Guide magazine). The employees say they didn't get money owed to them including their paychecks and vacation time. here to register, Not for publication, email or dissemination, Veritas-backed HMH buys educational services nonprofit NWEA, Professional services company FMP inks $36.5m from Alaris, NMS recaps environmental services firms Texas Pride and Texas Dumpster Companies, MSCP invests in services for homeowners; Patient Square launches platform for medical device makers, Leonard Green to acquire minority stake in HUB; plus Investcorp, Sound Partners, Odyssey invest in HVAC, 700 million people will make their home in African cities over the next decade, said DPIs Marc Stoneham. Once OpenGate snapped up by OpenGate in 2017, OpenGate's new regime heightened tensions and ended a relatively amicable relationship between management and the workers of IUE-CWA Local 84811 . [26], Prior to raising its first institutional fund, OpenGate also acquired the Waukesha, Wisconsin plant and brand rights to Golden Guernsey Dairy as the result of an antitrust divestment of Dean Foods, which was required to sell the plant to purchase GGD's other plants in the state. Its not like they didnt know they had to give 60 days notice, and its not like they didnt know there were some significant financial issues, said Richard McCune, a Redlands lawyer who filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of former employees. Doing otherwise could create confusion, disruptions and other difficulties with operations.. Securities class action lawsuits are filed on behalf of a class of investors or a class of holders of a particular security. This spring, Hamilton Scientific, a De Pere, Wis., lab equipment maker owned by OpenGate, abruptly shut down, laying off 80 people there and 190 at plants in Texas and Arkansas without notice, according to a lawsuit filed by former employees. Too often, private equity firms like OpenGate extract cash from the companies they acquire and walk away richer, regardless of what happens to workers and communities. It had about 100 workers, some of whom arrived at the plant one January morning to find the gates locked, according to state documents. In addition, OpenGate was to get 10 percent in Maxim plus a $500,000-a-year annual consulting fee, according to testimony. OpenGate Capital is a global private equity firm active in the lower middle-market and focused on acquiring corporate carve-outs, divestitures and special situations throughout North America, Western Europe and Latin America. Capital One spokesman Michael Bulger said: Withdrawing funding is a last resort. Before the deal even closed, executives at OpenGate met with PennySaver employees and touted their roughly 20 other acquisitions in a PowerPoint presentation obtained by the Register. The owner, private equity firm OpenGate Capital in Century City, had turned over management of the firm in December to a restructuring and liquidation company, Realization Services Inc. in Bedford Hills, N.Y. And in the two months before the shutdown, the lender, a unit of Capital One Financial Corp., had placed one and sometimes two representatives at PennySavers Brea headquarters to monitor the operation and the companys financial condition, under terms of the line of credit it was using to pay employees, among other expenses. Then, their final checks bounced. Were hiring an Advocacy & Political Manager. Former employees of at least three former OpenGate portfolio companies have filed lawsuits or complaints alleging OpenGate or the companies it owned violated labor laws requiring businesses to notify employees 60 days before mass layoffs. To date, OpenGate has laid off 678 California workers from the Pennysaver classified ad magazine, 100 Wisconsin workers at its Golden Guernsey dairy plant, 140 employees of the Connecticut boxboard company Fusion Paperboard, and nearly 200 employees in Texas, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, who worked for Hamilton Scientific, an OpenGate-owned laboratory furniture company. Workers are suing OpenGate in state and federal court, alleging it failed to provide adequate notice to workers about the shutdown and issued final paychecks that bounced. Beskrone v. OpenGate Capital Grp., LLC (In re PennySaver U.S. Publ'g The firm focuses on the acquisition of lower-to-mid-market businesses in the industrials, business services, and technology sectors. Kasoff, who also handled the Connecticut plant for OpenGate, said Fusion acted properly in all respects in selling some assets to a competitor and said it retains ownership of its real estate and other assets, which it will sell to pay off creditors. Hufcor workers battle private equity owner with shame ad - GazetteXtra LOS ANGELES - June 1, 2022 - OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, announced that it has exited its investment in EverZinc, a global provider of specialty zinc materials, through a sale to U.S. Zinc, a portfolio company of Aterian Investment Partners. PDF In the United States Bankruptcy Court for The District of Delaware In December 2014, while their lawsuit against Thenno Fisher was pending, the OpenGate and RoundRock entitles negotiated a sale-leaseback agreement for the . Nikou has received recognition for his business achievements. Similarly, employees at Golden Guernsey learned the company was closing when they showed up to work only to find the doors locked. Founded in 2005, OpenGate Capital is a private equity firm based in Los Angeles, California. Lauren moved back to the states in 2011 and now lives in Long Beach. It came as a complete shock to the management at the dairy and the union that they were about to close, said Eileen Appelbaum, a senior economist at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, whose book Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street devotes a chapter to the Wisconsin dairy. OpenGate Capital Fully Exits Investment in EverZinc Private equity, an ownership structure that puts distant financiers in charge of how a business is run, has been shown to result in worse health outcomes for patients, at greater cost. The default, the hiring of the restructuring firm and the lenders presence on site paint a picture of a company in financial distress, the kind that former employees allege should have prompted OpenGate to provide a federally required 60 days notice before closing the plant. Mohsen Moazami - OpenGate Capital Hufcor, a market-leading producer of accordion-style doors and mobile room partitions, was profitable when OpenGate bought it. It is normal course and practice that all parties to a contemplated transaction withhold announcements to any outside parties until there is certainty there will be closure, Fahn said. Founded in 1979, Chemsolv is a diversified distributor offering more than 1,000 chemicals including solvents, plasticizers, coolants . Fahn points to OpenGates acquisition of TV Guide, auto part manufacturer Gabriel, and Europe-based companies NorPaper, Benvic, Kotkamills, and Fleurus Presse as a some of OpenGates successful turnarounds. Working at OpenGate Capital | Glassdoor His father, who majored in mathematics at a German university, worked at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. It said the once-popular magazine was losing money and is now profitable. Revenue: $1 to $5 billion (USD) Competitors: Unknown. Don't have an account? Why would we put in all that effort?. Kasoff, making the first extended comments on behalf of PennySaver since its closure, said the default was technical and that the company was paying down the loan. Terms of the investment were not disclosed. OpenGate Capital, a Los Angeles firm that amassed. The Motion was joined by defendants Andrew Nikou and Jay Yook.4 The [6] He was bullied in school for being short. Senator Baldwin was a co-sponsor of the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, the first major effort to reform the private equity sector, in the last Congress. OpenGate Capital is a global private equity firm specializing in the acquisition and operation of businesses to create new value through operational improvements, innovation and growth. Catherine A. Osten, Spragues first selectman, the equivalent of mayor, said the company owes more than $240,000 in back taxes. Nikou was not named as a defendant in the suit. Darden promised to repay OpenGate $3.41 million on Friday for the loan made on Monday, according to court testimony. You get out of default.. [16], In 2012, through the firm's legacy, pre-fund investment process, OpenGate Capital acquired the Latin American operations of Getronics from the Dutch conglomerate, KPN. OpenGate Capital Investor Profile: Portfolio & Exits | PitchBook in Janesville, Wisconsin awoke to a nightmare. OpenGate Capital : Portfolio Company, Hufcor Inc., Names Mr. Koben OpenGate, which acquired PennySaver in 2013, specializes in buying units of larger companies and reselling them. They had received no notice that the magazine would be shuttered. It maintained operations during the worst of the pandemic and even advertised $16 hourly wages and generous benefits as recently as January 2021. About OpenGate Capital. OpenGate nevertheless was lured back in as a short-term lender to Darden. Thermo Fisher, the world's largest maker of laboratory equipment and scientific instruments, agreed to acquire Life Technologies Inc LIFE.O in mid-April for more than $13 billion. Thermo Fisher made none of the upgrades that were recommended by its security advisers in January and February 2012, and took no meaningful action to fortify or further secure the Facility in response to the continuing cartel infiltration, the complaint said. OpenGate Capital is a private equity firm that strives to acquire and optimize lower-to-middle market businesses throughout North America and Europe. Ive been doing this over three decades. Six months after the purchase, OpenGate sued Thermo Fisher, saying the company had concealed the fact that the Reynosa, Mexico, facility was under seige by the Gulf cartel, whose senior members brandished weapons at company employees and parked tractor trailers and cars at the facility. Several pre-fund, legacy investments that were made with the personal capital of Andrew Nikou and the Partners at OpenGate Capital were sold: Benvic was sold to InvestIndustrial in December 2017, NorPaper Avot-Vallee was sold in 2018 to a private investor, and in January 2019, NAKAN (the largest division within Ivy Group) was sold to Westlake Chemical Corporation. Andrew Nikou is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OpenGate Capital, a Los Angeles-based firm with offices in Paris, France. [5], Under Nikou's leadership, OpenGate Capital bought founder-owned businesses and divisions of Fortune 500 companies such as Philips, Schlumberger, Arvin Meritor, Stora Enso and Cascades. Confronted with this looming loss, Hufcor employees, Janesville residents and CWA union organizers have rallied against OpenGates greedy and exploitative practices. In 2011, the firm acquired NorPaper Avot Valle, a specialty paper manufacturer based in France. "OpenGate+Capital" | US Decisions | Law | CaseMine ScioTeq part of the OpenGate Capital family | Scioteq OpenGate Capital, a Los Angeles firm that amassed $5 billion in revenue during its first decade in business, has run exactly that playbook in Janesville since acquiring Hufcor in 2017.

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