ANZ Private Equity Invests in Green Acres

ANZ Private Equity
15 November 2004

ANZ Private Equity Invests in Green Acres Franchise

ANZ Private Equity has today announced an investment in the Green Acres Franchise Group that enables Green Acres to significantly accelerate its corporate development plan.

ANZ Private Equity, in conjunction with the National Bank, has provided Green Acres with an equity and debt package totalling $10 million. The transaction results in a shareholding of 43 percent for ANZ Private Equity. The other shareholders are Green Acres directors Logan Sears and Andrew Chisholm.

Green Acres has applied the funding to the repurchase of two Green Acres master franchises and the Hire A Hubby franchise company, significantly expanding its market share in the domestic services business. It intends to make additional purchases of branded franchise businesses, with a view to further growth and an initial public offering within three years. With the investment by ANZ, Green Acres has a total capitalisation of approximately $10 million.

The Co-Head of ANZ Private Equity, Steve Byrom, said the investment in Green Acres was highly significant for the bank because it was the first occasion on which a ‘Wall Street To Main Street’ banking solution had been provided to a National Bank customer. “Being able to offer this kind of solution to National Bank customers is a direct benefit of integrating our offering to corporate and commercial customers following the merger of ANZ and The National Bank earlier this year,” he said. “This will be the first of many such occasions.”

The ‘Wall Street to Main Street’ offering provides a combination of equity and debt (eg. mezzanine debt) tailored to the individual circumstances of the customer company and its owner/s. The offering can be structured to facilitate business strategies for growth, succession, exit etc. ANZ has been the only New Zealand bank making this type of offering available to the broad sweep of commercial customers. It has made equity capital available to customers over $2.5 million through ANZ Development Capital, and to larger customers through ANZ Private Equity.

Green Acres was established in 1991 as New Zealand’s first home services franchise business, and has evolved into a proprietary franchise system for distribution of home and commercial cleaning services. The Hire A Hubby franchise company is New Zealand’s leading generalist home maintenance and improvement franchise network. Hire A Hubby has recently launched a new service – Mobile Mums, which provides domestic services to the residential market.

Green Acres Director Logan Sears said the company would run the two franchise networks as separate businesses in different market segments, but would gain increased efficiencies through purchasing and other costs. “We will have a strong focus on increasing sales in both brands, and we will also be on the lookout for other opportunities to expand by acquisition,” he said.

ENDS

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