S$500M Landmark Investment by KKR in Leading Luxury Group in Asia

SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 4, 2018– V3 Group Limited (“V3” or the “Company”), a leading specialty retailer of luxury lifestyle and wellness products in Asia, today announced an investment by global investment firm KKR, which will invest up to S$500 million for a significant stake in V3, at an enterprise value of approximately S$1.7 billion.

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Headquartered in Singapore, V3 owns and develops premium products and services through its leading luxury and wellness brands – OSIM, TWG Tea and ONI (GNC, LAC, Xndo) – promoting and inspiring a healthy lifestyle to a broad and affluent consumer demographic across Asia. The Company also owns Futuristic Store Fixtures, which supports some of the world’s leading retail brands. The Company has a history of impressive brand creation and development, a deep understanding of the consumer market and retailing, and a presence in over 100 cities in 26 countries around the world.

Commenting on the investment by KKR, Mr. Ron Sim, Founder, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of V3, said, “I am extremely pleased to welcome KKR as a significant shareholder in V3. I look forward to an exciting partnership together as well as drawing on KKR’s longstanding expertise and full support to accelerate the growth of the business. I am confident this investment will position the Company for our next phase of growth, starting with the immediate expansion of TWG Tea in Japan and the USA and of OSIM in China.”

KKR’s investment marks the beginning of a robust relationship with V3, and affirms the strong heritage and prospects of one of Asia’s most distinguished luxury groups. KKR is making this investment from its Asian Fund III.

Mr. Jaka Prasetya, Member of KKR, said, “V3 is a landmark investment for KKR in a leading luxury group in Asia, underscoring our strong belief in the continued growth of the region’s consumer sector. At KKR, we aim to provide support and capital to successful home-grown, regional companies like V3 in order to capture opportunities across Asia and beyond. We look forward to working alongside the whole V3 team to build on the Company’s success.”

The transaction was advised by Evercore, the exclusive financial adviser to V3.

About V3 Group Limited

Headquartered in Singapore, V3 Group Limited (“V3”) is a leading Asian luxury group that creates, develops, and owns brands in the lifestyle and wellness markets. V3 has three major business streams, Lifestyle, Wellness and Specialist Fixtures, and a presence in over 100 cities in 26 countries around the world.

Beginning with the global luxury product leader OSIM in 1980, V3 Group founder Ron Sim has built up a portfolio of leading luxury brands over the years, including TWG Tea, the finest luxury tea brand in the world, and ONI Global, Asia’s largest retailer of nutritional supplements. In ONI Global’s core markets Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, V3 Group holds the exclusive franchise rights to the global wellness brand GNC. Through ONI Global, V3 also owns LAC, which offers customers wellness products that combine eastern herbal ingredients and modern western processing; and Xndo, a provider of formulated food-based health products. The Company also owns Futuristic Store Fixtures, which supports some of the world’s leading retail brands.

For more information about V3 Group, please visit www.v3group.com.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181203006091/en/

Source: V3 Group Limited

For media queries on KKR:
Cara Major
KKR
Cara.Major@kkr.com

For media queries on V3 Group:
Jeffrey Fang
Executive Director, Black Dot
jeffrey@blackdot.sg

Funding round led by firstminute capital, Pembroke VCT and leading technology entrepreneurs

• lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman’s investment vehicle backs Floom
• firstminute capital leads fund, alongside consumer venture capital trust, Pembroke VCT
• Other investors include The Hut Group CTO digital experiences Wing Chan and New Look founder Tom Singh
• Former CTO of Just Eat, Carlos Morgado, joins Floom’s board
• Floom increased revenue by 464% in the past 12 months
• Funding will enable further expansion to four more US cities and a new country in 2019

London, 3^rd December 2018: Floom, the digital marketplace that connects independent florists with customers across the world, has raised £2m/US $2.5m in a seed funding round led by firstminute capital, alongside Pembroke VCT. The investment will allow the start-up to continue its US expansion and develop its pioneering tech, including the floristry industry’s first SaaS offering.

Founded by 31-year-old entrepreneur Lana Elie in 2016, whose background lies in digital content creation for the likes of Gucci and Prada, Floom is the only curated marketplace of its kind for independent florists. Floom’s technology platform – which has been compared to the likes of JustEat and Farfetch – gives florists the software and tools to create and deliver beautifully crafted bouquets to a global network of customers in 125+ countries. The start-up now works with the best florists in the UK, New York and LA to offer customers same-day delivery.

The £2m investment comes from a venture capital-led funding round by firstminute capital with Henry Lane-Fox as the lead. Firstminute capital’s $100m seed fund is backed by 30 unicorn founders and global strategics. Additional investors include Tom Singh, the founder of New Look, Pembroke VCT, Wing Chan, CTO digital experiences of The Hut Group, and Carlos Morgado, former CTO of Just Eat, who also joins Floom’s board. The funding will allow Floom to bring its highly scalable, low-risk model that requires virtually no local infrastructure to four new US cities and a new country in 2019.

The funding will also be used to develop the first vertically integrated Software as a Service (SaaS) for the floristry industry. The technology will give independent florists everything they need to compete with bigger players, whose outdated systems lead to poor customer experience resulting in reduced numbers of newly acquired customers across the sector. With independent florists often lacking the e-commerce expertise and financial means to achieve market share, Floom’s SaaS will give them everything they need to reach and delight customers, from inventory management and a wholesale shop, to website builders and POS systems – as well as preparing for seasonal peaks with trend data e.g. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

The industry, which is worth $105 billion globally, has witnessed a 7% YoY growth, with 84% customers saying they will spend more on skilfully arranged, hand delivered flowers from a florist. Meanwhile, Floom’s revenue has increased by 463% over the past 12 months and is projecting £5m in sales in 2019.

Lana Elie, founder and CEO of Floom, said: “Achieving this seed funding is a huge achievement for us, and we’re delighted to get backing from so many experts in building tech-backed lifestyle brands.  We’re really excited about developing the technology required to help not only independent florists, but also eventually other hyper-local businesses, thrive in the modern economy.”

Andrew Wolfson, managing director of Pembroke VCT, said: “When it comes to investing in any business, the founders and the proposition are paramount. Lana’s passion for the business, her understanding of the disruption that is possible in this sector, her attention to detail and her commitment to her customers has already created significant traction. We think Floom is set to provide the flower market a welcome makeover.”

Henry Lane Fox, lead investor from firstminute capital, said: “After finding product/market fit with its B2C marketplace, Floom is now perfectly positioned to act on Lana’s vision and build their B2B SaaS solution for its florist partners. Lana’s business model is a prime example of a “market network”; combining a marketplace, a direct network, and the lucrative revenue model and stickiness of SaaS. With her relentlessness and ability to speak the language of wholesalers, florists and end consumers alike, we believe Lana will put her mark not only on the cut flower market, but the industry as a whole.”

Carlos Morgado, former CTO of Just Eat, who is joining Floom’s board, said: “I’m really looking forward to joining the board and working alongside Floom’s passionate team. Like them, I think floristry has huge digital potential, particularly as it’s a largely traditional marketplace. Floom is creating technology that perfectly complements the creative focus of independent florists, so I’m excited to be part of their transformation journey. I’m looking forward to finding another unicorn, this time among flowers.”

Following its investment in Key Travel, the fifth platform deal in the Elysian Capital II LP Fund, on 25^thMay 2018, Elysian Capital has supported management in the acquisition of Raptim Humanitarian Travel (“Raptim”) to form the world’s largest travel management company exclusively focused on the humanitarian, faith-based and academic sectors. Key Travel has acquired 100% of the shares of Raptim and the merged business will have sales approaching £350m (€400m, $450m) and over 500 employees in ten countries.

 Commenting on the merger, Saad Hammad, CEO of Key Travel, who will lead the combined businesses, said:

“A combination with Raptim is an exciting opportunity for Key Travel. The strategic rationale is strong: undisputed leadership in humanitarian, faith-based and academic travel globally, a doubling in scale in the US and a significant complementary platform in Mainland Europe. There are many economic synergies, given the high level of sector, geographic and systems overlap. Above all, both organisations are people focused and values driven, with emphasis on compassion and service. A combination will enable us to serve our customers better, collaborate more effectively with our suppliers and offer more development opportunities for our people.”

Eduard Kimman, Chairman of the Board of Raptim, also commented:

“Key Travel’s acquisition of Raptim is a huge win-win. It provides a major growth opportunity for both our businesses through a strengthened and expanded service offering for our customers and markets and a platform to leverage complementary skills and capabilities. We will benefit from a singular investment in technology and our scale and sales momentum gives us an opportunity to retain and energise talented and passionate employees. Key Travel like Raptim is all about respect, responsibility, expertise, compassion and customer service and so the cultural fit is strong.”

About Key Travel: 

• Key Travel is a leading travel management company dedicated to the humanitarian, faith and academic sectors. Currently operating in 54 countries worldwide, with over 1,900 clients, Key Travel has been serving the not-for-profit market for 38 years. The business is headquartered in London and has its US head office in Philadelphia and its Europe head office in Brussels.
• Key Travel is privately owned: shareholders include its management team and Elysian Capital, an independent UK private equity firm which specialises in investing in fast growth companies.
• More detail can be found on the company website: http://www.keytravel.com

About Raptim:

• Raptim is an international humanitarian/faith focused travel management company headquartered in Tilburg, Holland and owned by the Saint Bonifacius Foundation, a fund for charity purposes.
• The business was founded in 1946 and is almost entirely focused on serving the non-profit community, with a strong bias towards faith-based organisations and humanitarian NGOs. It has operations in the US, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy and Kenya together with a franchisee in Denmark and an operating “partner” in Australia.
• More detail can be found on the company website: http://www.raptim.org

For further information, please contact:

Ken Terry, CEO Elysian Capital       ken@elysiancapital.com

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gladstone Investment Corporation (NASDAQ: GAIN) (“Gladstone Investment”) announced today the sale of its equity interest and the prepayment of its debt investment in LogoSportswear, Inc. (“Logo”) to a sponsor-backed strategic investor. As a result of this transaction, Gladstone Investment realized a significant gain on its equity investment. Gladstone Investment acquired LogoSportswear in partnership with Digital Fuel Capital, a private-equity firm focused on e-commerce businesses, in 2015.

Logo, headquartered in Wallingford, CT, is a leading on-line provider of custom promotional apparel. Home to the LogoSportswear, TeamSportswear and tfund™ brands, Logo Sportswear Inc. has worked with large companies, small businesses, groups, events, teams, sports fans and individuals for over 20 years offering one of the largest selections of customizable apparel, workwear and uniforms.

“Gladstone Investment has greatly enjoyed our partnership with Logo’s management team and Digital Fuel Capital over the last few years,” said Kyle Largent, Managing Director of Gladstone Investment. “Pat Cerreta and his team have achieved outstanding results in both growing and transforming the business and have a bright future ahead of them.”

“With the sale of Logo and from inception in 2005, Gladstone Investment has exited 14 of its management supported buy-outs, generating significant net realized gains on these investments,” said David Dullum, President of Gladstone Investment. ”Our strategy and capability as a buyout fund and our investment approach of realizing gains on equity, while generating strong current income during the investment period continues to provide meaningful value to shareholders.”

Gladstone Investment Corporation is a publicly traded business development company that seeks to make secured debt and equity investments in lower middle market private businesses in the United States in connection with acquisitions, changes in control and recapitalizations. Additional information can be found at www.gladstoneinvestment.com.

For Investor Relations inquiries related to any of the monthly distribution-paying Gladstone family of funds, please visit www.gladstone.com.

Forward-looking Statements:

The statements in this press release regarding the longer-term prospects of Gladstone Investment and Logo and its management team, and the ability of Gladstone Investment and Logo to be successful in the future are “forward-looking statements.” These forward-looking statements inherently involve certain risks and uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Although these statements are based on Gladstone Investment’s current beliefs that are believed to be reasonable as of the date of this press release, a number of factors could cause actual results and conditions to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including those factors described from time to time in Gladstone Investment’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gladstone Investment undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE: Gladstone Investment Corporation

For further information: Gladstone Investment Corporation, 703-287-5810