Franklin Square Announces Financing for Rogue Wave Software
Senior secured loan supports Rogue Wave's acquisition of Zend Technologies
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Franklin Square Capital Partners, the largest manager of business development companies (BDCs), announced the origination of a new senior secured loan to Rogue Wave Software, a leading provider of cross-platform software development tools and libraries. The loan facilitated the refinancing of Rogue Wave's existing debt and acquisition of Zend Technologies, the leader in end-to-end web and mobile application development for the PHP web language.
Rogue Wave is a portfolio company of Audax Group (Audax), a Boston, MA based investment firm focused on the middle market. The financing was provided by FS Investment Corporation (NYSE: FSIC), FS Investment Corporation II (FSIC II) and FS Investment Corporation III (FSIC III), BDCs managed by affiliates of Franklin Square and sub-advised by GSO / Blackstone Debt Funds Management LLC (GDFM), an affiliate of GSO Capital Partners LP (GSO).
"We are pleased to provide a timely financing solution to a software industry leader like Rogue Wave," said Michael C. Forman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FSIC, FSIC II and FSIC III. "The transaction is another example of our ability to draw upon the collective capital base across the FSIC fund franchise to provide customized credit solutions to strong middle market companies."
"Rogue Wave holds a significant market position in the software industry, and with its strong customer base, track record of growth and quality of earnings, we believe the company is poised for continued success," said Brad Marshall, Senior Managing Director at GSO.
Specific terms of the financing were not disclosed.
About FSIC
FSIC is a publicly traded BDC focused on providing customized credit solutions to private middle market U.S. companies. FSIC seeks to invest primarily in the senior secured debt and, to a lesser extent, the subordinated debt of private middle market companies to achieve the best risk-adjusted returns for its investors. In connection with its debt investments, FSIC may receive equity interests such as warrants or options.
FSIC is advised by FB Income Advisor, LLC, an affiliate of Franklin Square, and is sub-advised by GDFM, an affiliate of GSO. GSO, with approximately $80.8 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2015, is the credit platform of Blackstone, one of the world's leading managers of alternative investments. For more information, please visit www.fsinvestmentcorp.com.
About FSIC II and FSIC III
FSIC II and FSIC III are publicly registered, non-traded BDCs sponsored by Franklin Square. FSIC II and FSIC III focus primarily on investing in the debt securities of private companies throughout the United States, with the investment objectives of generating current income and, to a lesser extent, long-term capital appreciation for their investors. FSIC II and FSIC III are advised by affiliates of Franklin Square and are sub-advised by GDFM. For more information, please visit www.franklinsquare.com.
About Franklin Square
Franklin Square is a leading manager of alternative investment funds designed to enhance investors' portfolios by providing access to asset classes, strategies and asset managers that typically have been available to only the largest institutional investors. The firm's funds offer "endowment-style" investment strategies that help construct diversified portfolios and manage risk. Franklin Square strives not only to maximize investment returns but also to set the industry standard for best practices by focusing on transparency, investor protection and education for investment professionals and their clients.
Founded in Philadelphia in 2007, Franklin Square quickly established itself as a leader in the world of alternative investments by introducing innovative credit-based income funds, including the industry's first non-traded BDC. As of June 30, 2015, the firm managed approximately $16.8 billion in total assets, including $15.4 billion in BDC assets, making it the largest manager of BDCs. For more information, please visit www.franklinsquare.com.
Contact Information:
Franklin Square Media Team
[email protected]
215-495-1174
Jim Ballan
Senior Vice President,
Investor Relations & Capital Markets
[email protected]
267-439-4375
About Blackstone and GSO
Blackstone is one of the world's leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with over $300 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Blackstone also provides various financial advisory services, including financial and strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.
GSO Capital Partners LP is the global credit and distressed investment platform of Blackstone. With approximately $80.8 billion of assets under management (as of September 30, 2015), GSO is one of the largest alternative managers in the world focused on the leveraged-finance, or non-investment grade related, marketplace. GSO seeks to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns in its business by investing in a broad array of strategies including mezzanine debt, distressed investing, leveraged loans and other special-situation strategies. Its funds are major providers of credit for small and middle-market companies and they also advance rescue financing to help distressed companies.
About Rogue Wave Software
Rogue Wave is one of the largest independent providers of cross-platform software development tools and embedded components in the world. The Rogue Wave portfolio of complementary, cross-platform tools helps developers quickly build applications for strategic software initiatives. Through decades of solving the most complex problems across financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, government, academia, and other industries, Rogue Wave tools, libraries, and services enable developers to write better code, faster. For more information, please visit www.roguewave.com.
About Zend Technologies
Zend, the PHP company, was founded by the co-authors of the web development language PHP and continues as a dominant entity behind PHP. With 50 percent of the web workload running on PHP, Zend products drive PHP in the enterprise, from code creation through production deployment. Zend enables its clients to focus on innovation rather than using cycles to manage data structures and troubleshoot issues. For more information, please visit www.zend.com.
About Audax Group
Audax Group is an alternative asset management firm specializing in investments in middle market companies. With offices in Boston, New York, and Menlo Park, Audax has over $6 billion in assets under management across its Private Equity, Mezzanine, and Senior Debt businesses. Audax Private Equity invests in control acquisitions of lower-middle market companies across a select group of industries, and pursues a Buy & Build strategy that transforms smaller companies into strategic assets. For more information, please visit www.audaxgroup.com.
Forward-Looking Statements and Important Disclosures
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, including statements with regard to the future performance or operations of FSIC, FSIC II, FSIC III, Rogue Wave or Zend. Words such as "believes," "expects," "projects" and "future" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements, and some of these factors are enumerated in the filings FSIC, FSIC II and FSIC III make with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. FSIC, FSIC II and FSIC III undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Individual investors and endowments may have different investment horizons, liquidity needs and risk tolerances. In addition, fees that may be incurred by an investor in a fund sponsored by Franklin Square may be different than fees incurred by an endowment investing in similar assets as those in which the funds invest.
SOURCE Franklin Square Capital Partners
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