05/09/2017

Citizens Bank Leads $450 Million Financing for PRO Unlimited Recapitalization

Harvest Partners takes new stake in leading contingent workforce management solutions firm

PROVIDENCE, RI – Citizens Bank announced today that Citizens Commercial Banking has closed a new $450 million asset-based revolver to support a recapitalization of PRO Unlimited by Harvest Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm, and Investcorp, a global provider and manager of alternative investment products.

As part of the transaction, Investcorp, which has owned the business since 2014, re-invested in the company, taking a minority stake in the new capital structure. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Citizens had previously arranged a $300 million financing to support Investcorp’s acquisition of Boca Raton, Florida-based PRO Unlimited in 2014.

PRO Unlimited is one of the fastest-growing providers of software and managed services to large enterprises, enabling its clients to more effectively manage their contingent workforce. Since its founding in 1991, all of PRO Unlimited’s growth has been organic. A pioneer in purely vendor-neutral contingent workforce management, PRO Unlimited services are vastly enhanced by its industry-leading vendor management software services.

Andrew Schultz, founder and chief executive officer of PRO Unlimited, said, “We are excited to work closely with Harvest Partners as this new partnership will allow us to continue executing against our growth trajectory. Investcorp has been a valuable strategic and financial partner, providing us with the platform to expand our software and solutions globally, and we are pleased that they will remain involved as we enter this new phase of the business. We appreciate the support of the Citizens Bank team. They have been a long-term partner supporting PRO Unlimited when we were a public company, into our transition under private equity ownership, and through three different ownership groups.”

“We acquired PRO Unlimited because we knew the company had significant growth potential given the strong secular tailwinds and its leading market position,” said Maud Brown, managing director of Corporate Investment North America at Investcorp. “We worked closely with the company’s committed management team to grow the business, focusing on new enterprise client wins and key investments in technology, marketing and sales. We continue to have conviction in the long-term market trends and look forward to building upon our relationship with PRO Unlimited and partnering with Harvest to capture additional opportunities. Citizens has been an invaluable strategic and financial partner for us since the 2014 deal, and we are very pleased with the support and flexibility they provided to underwrite and syndicate this new transaction in an expedited manner. ”

Andrew Schoenthal, senior managing director at Harvest Partners, said, “We are excited to partner with the PRO Unlimited team to provide additional financial and strategic resources to continue to build on a long track record of successful growth. PRO Unlimited’s vendor-neutral MSP and VMS software provide the most compelling solution to large corporations seeking to more effectively and economically manage their contingent workforce. We appreciate the Citizens team’s hard work and efficient execution on this new deal and look forward to the partnership going forward.”

“PRO Unlimited is a great client and we’re pleased to be able to help the management team and the sponsors, Harvest Partners and Investcorp, achieve their strategic and financial goals,” said Chris Carmosino, head of business capital at Citizens Bank. “Providing asset-based financing to facilitate acquisitions is just one of the ways that Citizens delivers value for clients at every stage of their business life cycle.” 

About Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $150.3 billion in assets as of March 31, 2017. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens helps its retail customers “bank better” with mobile and online banking, a 24/7 customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,200 ATMs and approximately 1,200 Citizens Bank branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions. Citizens also provides wealth management, mortgage lending, auto lending, student lending and commercial banking services in select markets nationwide. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers corporate, institutional and not-for-profit clients a full range of wholesale banking products and services including lending and deposits, capital markets, treasury services, foreign exchange and interest hedging, leasing and asset finance, specialty finance and trade finance.

Citizens operates through its subsidiaries Citizens Bank, N.A., and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania as Citizens Bank, Citizens Commercial Banking and Citizens One. Additional information about Citizens and its full line of products and services can be found at www.citizensbank.com.