Houlihan Lokey Advises K-MAC

Houlihan Lokey's Consumer, Food & Retail Group is pleased to announce that K-MAC Holdings Corp., a portfolio company of Brentwood Associates and Arlon Group, has been acquired by Lee Equity Partners Opportunities Fund, L.P. The transaction closed on December 20, 2016.

K-MAC, headquartered in Fort Smith, Ark., is one of the largest Taco Bell franchisees in the country, and also operates KFC and Golden Corral restaurants. Brentwood Associates, in partnership with Arlon Food and Agriculture Investment Program, invested in K-MAC in 2011. Since then, K-MAC significantly expanded its geographic footprint, increasing its restaurant count from 190 in 2011 to 294 today, with restaurants located across nine states. K-MAC has grown over the past few decades through a combination of new store openings and acquisitions. Today, it operates 271 Taco Bell restaurants, 17 KFC restaurants, and six Golden Corral restaurants, and has over 7,500 employees.

Brentwood Associates is a leading consumer-focused private equity investment firm with a 30-year history of investing in leading middle-market growth companies. Brentwood focuses on investments in growing businesses where it is able to leverage its extensive experience in areas such as: branded consumer products; multi-location strategies; direct-to-customer marketing, including direct mail and e-commerce; niche brands with specialty distribution; education; and business services. Since 1984, Brentwood's dedicated private equity team has invested in over 50 portfolio companies with an aggregate transaction value of over $6 billion.

Arlon Group is a food and agriculture investment firm with a global network that supports investments across the entire food supply chain in middle-market businesses in the Americas. Arlon's investment focus comes from its roots, which began with its founding investor, Continental Grain Company, a 200-year-old leader in the food and agriculture space. The firm's investment professionals are experts in global food and agriculture investing and work collaboratively across geographies to identify and back growth-oriented, middle-market businesses that benefit from the investment team's shared knowledge and resources. Arlon Group has approximately $980 million in assets under management and is headquartered in New York, with a presence in São Paulo, Brazil, and in Beijing and Hong Kong, China through a local affiliate.

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