Transactions
TGI Systems Corporation
Chicago, IL
North American and Worldwide Provider of Global Event Solutions and State of the Art Signage
INVESTMENT AMOUNT: $5,000,000
INVESTMENT DATE: December 2014
“TGI is very fortunate with the quality of service and the tremendous financial flexibility provided by CapX for this specific financing. Additionally with our new CapX partnership, TGI has significant financial resources to support our continued growth in the future.”
— Chris Brenna, Chairman and CEO, TGI Systems Corporation
INVESTMENT SITUATION
TGI Systems Corporation (TGI) has an 18-year history of providing Visual Branding Solutions for a number of top domestic and international clients, particularly those in the sports realm. With headquarters in Chicago, and a sales and marketing presence in California, New York, South America, Germany and the Pacific Firm, the company has provided branding solutions, including LED systems & content management, plus staffing, at large multi-venue event signage projects in over 160 cities located in 50 plus countries (over 1,000 events). TGI Europe, the company’s German based division, is the LED technical and R&D lead facility, providing TGI with an immense opportunity to exhibit the most sophisticated technologies, as well as expanding one of the largest LED rental inventories available globally. See more at www.worldwidetgi.com.
Known as the innovator in rotational and LED perimeter signage systems, TGI has initiated and inaugurated LED system integration for clients such as FIFA, UEFA, The Canadian Football League, U.S. Major League Soccer, and the Annual Rose Bowl parade and game. In addition, TGI has recently captured multi-year supply agreements of LED boards with UEFA, Manchester United, Liverpool Football Club, The Football Club of Scotland, and La Liga (Spanish Premiere Division). The procurement of these most recent contracts required TGI to source significant capital to build and deploy TGI’S LED system technology for their new clients.
THE CAPX APPROACH AND SOLUTION
While TGI maintains a favorable relationship with their commercial bank, the challenge of funding fixed assets outside of the U.S. left TGI without significant capital resources to execute its growth strategy. TGI was looking for a long term and intuitive financial partner that could provide sophisticated financial solutions. CapX’s experience with providing middle market financial products to support growth enabled them to work closely with TGI’s key constituents and find a suitable path to finance TGI’s LED board growth strategy. The result was a tailored financing that supported the execution of the new customer relationships and was acceptable to all of TGI’s key stakeholders.
“TGI looked to be an attractive company for CapX to finance; the initial challenge was the new assets driving the Company’s growth were to be domiciled in Europe. By lending through TGI’s U.S. entity and crafting a mutually agreeable inter-creditor agreement with the Company’s bank, CapX was able to help the Company gain game-changing clients and provide TGI enterprise value enhancing capital.”
— Jeffrey S. Pfeffer, Managing Parter, CapX Partners