Case Study - Eye Care Centres of America

Case Study - Eye Care Centres of America        Uniting forces to unlock hidden value and drive sustainable performance improvement.

Merges & Acquisitions

Background

ECCA is a significant spectacle seller throughout the USA.
Brands include: EyeMasters, Binyon’s, Visionworks, Hour Eyes, Dr. Stein Optical, Vision World and Eye DRX.
49% ownership was by Golden Gate Capital and 51% owned by Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings.
Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings was facing financial difficulties ECCA needed to be realised shortly after its purchase.
Various contractual provisions in favor of Golden Gate Capital enabled them to have significant control of the assets
Despite Moulin’s desire to realise the asset, Golden Gate didn’t consent.
Appointed to realise the asset for Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings.

Appointed to the board of ECCA.
Conduct a thorough examination of the contractual position of the parties.
Stabilise ECCA’s bankers so that operations continued normally.
Ensured that there was no default in banking facilities.
Examine potential buyers for the asset and undertook a soft sell process.
Preparation of information memorandum.
After thorough analysis of the market, key likely buyers were identified and approached. FAR convinced Golden Gate to sell their interest.
Devised a court approved process to sell the asset.

Reassured direct lenders and stakeholders throughout the sale period.
Within nine months ECCA was sold at nearly double the purchase price.
The minority shareholder, Golden Gate Capital, invested USD$87 million and recovered USD$130 million.
Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings investment was doubled.
The operations of ECCA operated seamlessly and successfully during a period of uncertainty.