Houlihan Lokey Advises Gersh

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that The Gersh Agency (Gersh), a leading entertainment talent representation agency, has received a significant investment from Crestview Partners (Crestview). The transaction closed on April 27, 2023.

Crestview will hold a significant minority position in the company, with the Gersh partnership group maintaining control of the firm. The investment from Crestview will help accelerate Gersh’s domestic and international growth strategy by expanding firm resources to support its growing staff and client roster. The Gersh partnership group will maintain control, and the firm will continue to operate as it has throughout its history, keeping its clients’ interests as its paramount focus.

Founded in 1949 by Phil Gersh, The Gersh Agency has been a pillar of the representation business for more than seven decades. Over the past several years, Gersh’s growth has accelerated, reaching 300 employees today, with 125 agents across nine full-service departments and offices in Beverly Hills and New York. As the fourth largest entertainment talent agency, Gersh has strategically differentiated itself from competitive firms across the agency landscape by remaining solely focused on client representation while also investing significantly in building a broad set of capabilities to service the varying and complete needs of its client base.

Crestview is a New York-based private equity firm focused on the middle market. The firm manages funds with approximately $10 billion of aggregate capital commitments and is led by a group of partners who have complementary experience and backgrounds in private equity, finance, operations, and management. Crestview has senior investment professionals focused on sourcing and managing investments in each of the specialty areas of the firm: media, industrials, and financial services.

Houlihan Lokey acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Gersh and structured and negotiated the transaction on behalf of the company and its shareholders.