Trimaran Capital Partners was founded in 2000 by former
Drexel Burnham Lambert and
CIBC World Markets investment bankers Jay Bloom, Andrew Heyer, and Dean Kehler. The firm traces its roots back to the 1995 creation of the CIBC Argosy Merchant funds, a series of merchant banking investment funds managed on behalf of
CIBC, and before that to the 1990 founding of the boutique investment banking firm The Argosy Group.
The Argosy Group The Argosy Group was a New York-based boutique investment bank founded in February 1990, and is Trimaran's earliest predecessor. Founded as a 9-person advisory firm by Bloom, Heyer, and Kehler, Before Drexel, the three bankers had all worked together at
Shearson Lehman Brothers. Kehler and Bloom had worked together previously at
Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb and were joined by Heyer when Lehman was acquired by
Shearson/American Express. The Argosy team had been involved in many of the most prominent high yield financings of the preceding two decades, for companies including
RJR Nabisco,
Beatrice Foods, and
Storer Communications. The Argosy Group focused on debt underwriting, private placements, sales and trading, proprietary special situation investing, and restructuring advisory assignments for highly leveraged companies. Argosy created a niche raising high yield debt. , later
CIBC World Markets, acquired the Argosy Group, the predecessor of Trimaran The acquisition of Argosy marked an aggressive push by CIBC into the U.S. investment banking business. Prior to that point, CIBC had never done a
junk bond deal. Argosy's three major principals had worked on some of the biggest junk bond deals of the 1980s while at Drexel Burnham Lambert. The 52 Argosy employees that CIBC acquired would constitute the core of what would become CIBC's High Yield Group and the CIBC Argosy Merchant Banking funds that were responsible for, among other things, the $2 billion windfall that CIBC would earn from its early investments in
Global Crossing. The Argosy principals also managed two
collateralized debt obligation vehicles known as Caravelle Funds I and II. With the acquisition of Argosy in 1995 and
Oppenheimer & Co. in 1997, the center of gravity of CIBC's investment banking operations began to shift toward the United States. CIBC's High Yield Group began to develop a reputation for financing complex leveraged buyout transactions and worked closely with several of the leading private equity firms. CIBC provided financing for many of the leading private equity firms of this period including:
Apollo Management,
Hicks Muse,
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.,
Thomas H. Lee Partners, and
Willis Stein & Partners. They were also responsible for the creation and management of multiple special situations investment funds and
collateralized debt obligation funds, and the creation of a major leveraged finance business in the U.K. In the aggregate, these businesses had several hundred employees in the United States, Canada and the U.K. CIBC's investment in Global Crossing provided a considerable boost for its investment banking operations in the U.S. and for Bloom, Heyer and Kehler. In fact, CIBC's gain on its investment in Global Crossing would represent more than 20% of the bank's profits in 2000. Trimaran was founded in 2000, effectively on the back of the success of the Global Crossing investment. In April 2001, Trimaran closed on a $1 billion fund with capital provided primarily by CIBC.
Spinout from CIBC World Markets (2000–2002) The investment banking operations of CIBC World Markets reached their peak in 1999 and 2000, when the bank cracked the top ten of U.S. issuers of
high yield bonds and the top twenty in mergers and acquisitions advisory. From 1995 through 2000, the High Yield Group at CIBC World Markets had grown to more than 120 and had raised more than $80 billion of high yield debt. Following the crash of the
dot-com bubble and the shutdown of the high yield markets in late 2000, CIBC World Markets began to suffer a series of setbacks. In July 2001, the
Wall Street Journal profiled CIBC World Markets, chronicling the rapid decline of the bank from the peaks of Wall Street's league table rankings. At the same time, the High Yield Group was restructured with the original Argosy Group founders focusing their responsibilities on their new Trimaran Capital Partners fund and the older CIBC Argosy Merchant funds. Bloom, Heyer and Kehler were succeeded by managing directors Edward Levy and Bruce Spohler, who had worked previously at Argosy and Drexel, together with Bill Phoenix. By 2002, as a result of these developments, the CIBC implemented a strategy to reallocate resources and capital away from the riskier CIBC World Markets division in favor of its retail operations.
Investments (2002–2005) Although Trimaran had made some investments in telecom and internet startups in 2000 and had also made investments in companies such as
Iasis Healthcare and
Village Voice Media, the bulk of its capital from its $1 billion 2001-vintage private equity fund was uninvested after its first year and a half. In 2003, Trimaran completed a number of
leveraged buyouts including Reddy Ice (with
Bear Stearns Merchant Banking), Norcraft (with
Saunders Karp & Megrue) Trimaran made a series of investments in 2004 including: jewellery retailer
Fortunoff, specialty apparel retailer Urban Brands (
Ashley Stewart clothing) and auto parts manufacturer
Accuride Corporation. In 2005, Trimaran would add Charlie Brown Steakhouse, which would later acquire
Bugaboo Creek Steak House in 2007. Trimaran would also make investments in
Jefferson National and
Broadview Networks among others. ==Successor entities==