KPS Capital Partners has announced the purchase agreement for all Briggs & Stratton Corporation activities, including the capital of foreign subsidiaries for a total amount of approximately 550 million dollars, plus a major investment of 265 million dollars.
Under the terms of the agreement, a newly established KPS subsidiary will acquire all of the company's assets through a court-controlled sales process. To facilitate this, Briggs & Stratton has filed for voluntary reorganization under judicial supervision under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code.
KPS through its affiliate has also agreed to invest $ 265 million to ensure that Briggs & Stratton has sufficient liquidity to continue normal operations, including timely payment of employee wages and benefits, ongoing assistance with orders and shipments to customers and other obligations.
Todd Teske, president and CEO of Briggs & Stratton, said: “In recent months we have explored various options with our consultants to strengthen our financial position and flexibility. The challenges we faced during the Covid-19 pandemic made the reorganization a difficult but necessary and yet appropriate path to secure our business. This investment also gives us support to execute our strategic plans to give greater value to our customers and partners.
Throughout this process, Briggs & Stratton products will continue to be manufactured, distributed, sold and fully supported by our dedicated team. We have a legendary past and a bright future based on our great experience. Our portfolio of innovative engines, solid product lines and high-performance commercial batteries means that Briggs can meet the needs of our customers around the world in terms of energy to do the job now and in the future ".
Michael Psaros, co-founder and co-managing partner of KPS added: «We are very excited to acquire Briggs & Stratton, a legendary brand in American production and a leading company in its sector. Briggs & Stratton enjoys an excellent market position, production capacity and engineering design worldwide and a portfolio of industry-leading products sold under iconic brands. We intend to take advantage of the company's many interesting growth opportunities and support its already substantial investments in research and development.
KPS intends to grow the new Briggs & Stratton through strategic acquisitions. KPS is committed to the rapid acquisition of Briggs & Stratton to provide certainty of results and confidence in the future of the new company for all its stakeholders, including customers, employees and suppliers. The company and stakeholders will benefit from the commitment that KPS intends to demonstrate towards production excellence, the continuous improvement of the global network, access to capital and significant financial resources. The new Briggs & Stratton will be prudently capitalized and not burdened by previous liabilities. So far we have spent a huge amount of effort, resources and capital on this process. We are confident that all the conditions necessary to create a new and thriving business are in place ».
We at GardenTV are also confident that this change can bring new energy and even more power to a historic company like Briggs & Stratton.
Sources:
KPS press release: https://www.kpsfund.com/news/press-releases/2020/07/20/kps-capital-partners-agrees-to-acquire-substantially-all-of-the-assets-of- briggs-stratton-corporation-including-equity-of-foreign-subsidiaries
Briggs & Stratton press release: https://www.bascoreorganization.com/content/dam/basco/na/en_us/files/Reorganization/BGG%20Reorganization%20Release_072020.pdf