RedBird Capital Partners

Description: In April 2015, RedBird partnered with the NFL and its 32 team owners (“32 Equity”) to create OLE as a standalone, independently capitalized live event experiential business platform.  Anchored by a 15-year contract to bundle and monetize exclusive hospitality and ticketing packages at the Super Bowl and the NFL’s other marquee events, OLE today is one of the world’s largest live event experiential companies, with over 200 rights holder partnerships, including the NCAA Final Four, Ryder Cup and PGA Championships, 50+ college bowl games, music festivals and hundreds of global music tours.

Acquirer: Endeavor

Exit Date: January 2020

RedBird’s Value Add:

Under RedBird’s ownership, EBITDA grew more than eightfold from 2015 to 2019, through a combination of organic growth, targeted acquisitions, and merger synergies, consistent with RedBird’s build-up investment strategy.

RedBird identified and hired the senior leadership team and built an internal direct-sales team.  We also led two debt financings and four acquisitions:

• Future Beat (Sep. 2018), a music industry VIP events leader founded by the creator of the VIP divisions at both Sony Signatures and Live Nation
• PrimeSport (Dec. 2017), a leading hospitality/ticketing provider with long term contracts/relationships with over 200 rights holders.
• Anthony Travel (Feb. 2016), the largest sports travel company in the U.S.
• Kreate Inc. (Dec. 2016), a large-scale event production firm that produces premium live events for marquee clients including the NHL, MLB, Disney, Fox, USGA and USTA

Description: Compass Datacenters develops and owns wholesale data center facilities, leveraging a success-based, build-to-suit capex model, which is supported by long-term leases with attractive counterparty tenants. Since inception, Compass has experienced significant growth through a combination of leasing, new market expansion, greenfield development, and M&A, which has transformed the company into one of the largest data center providers in North America.

Investment Partners: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Azrieli Group

RedBird’s Value Add:  The RedBird team leveraged its deep sector expertise, working closely with Management on multiple value creation levers and company-building initiatives, which has led to an 8x+ increase in portfolio value.  Today, Compass is one of the largest developers and owners of wholesale data centers, and the company is a key partner to many of the world’s largest cloud and technology providers.

Team & Relationship Network:  RedBird’s investment in Compass Datacenters was sourced through a long-standing relationship with Founder & CEO Chris Crosby.  Since the initial investment, RedBird has helped source key hires to expand the senior management team.  In 2019, the Azrieli Group (TASE:AZRG), the largest real estate company in Israel and majority owned by the Azrieli family, made a strategic investment into Compass, becoming a value-add partner to the company and to RedBird.

New Development Leasing & NOI Growth: As Compass has expanded into new markets and developed additional facilities, property-level NOI has increased 5x under RedBird’s ownership to support both new and existing customer growth.  Looking ahead, the company is well-positioned as a direct beneficiary of the continued rapid growth in cloud computing and data demand needs.

Portfolio Expansion and M&A: Compass is now one of the largest privately-owned wholesale data center platforms in North America.  The company has executed multiple strategic acquisitions, most notably the acquisition of Root Datacenters in Montreal (July 2019).  Compass’s current portfolio includes nine markets with a diversified mix of leading cloud, software, and enterprise tenants.