Earlier than any of them, there was Thomas H. Lee and the agency that bore his title.

Lee, a billionaire whose best-known transaction was notching a 334% return on fairness from his 1992 buy of Snapple Beverage Corp., died Thursday at his workplace in New York at age 78. His loss of life was dominated a suicide by gunshot wound to the top, Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the New York Metropolis Workplace of Chief Medical Examiner, stated in an electronic mail.

The grief unfold quickly amongst these on Wall Road who knew him greatest. Todd Abbrecht and Scott Sperling, co-chief govt officers at Lee’s former agency, now referred to as THL, remembered him as a “beneficiant and gracious particular person.” On the New York workplace of Lee Fairness Companions, a lady on the cellphone was crying as she stated the agency declined to touch upon his loss of life.

Utilizing $150,000 from an inheritance and a mortgage from his brother, he began Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Companions in 1974 and ran the agency till 2006.

Lee broke together with his namesake agency that yr and left to start out a brand new one, Lee Fairness. He didn’t take his title with him.

Via each corporations, Lee invested greater than $15 billion in a whole lot of transactions as of 2020. That included his well-known Snapple deal.

His agency purchased Snapple in 1992 for $135 million, investing solely $28 million of its personal cash. Lee then flipped it to Quaker Oats Co. for $1.7 billion two years later after boosting annual income from $95 million to $750 million.

His Snapple return on fairness was 334% after his agency took out $927 million from the sale, based on a 1997 Forbes profile. With earnings like that, by 2022, Lee was price $2 billion, based on Forbes.

‘Iconic Determine’

Lee, who was typically seen chewing a cigar across the workplace, had the personal fairness strategy of concentrating on mid-cap firms with progress potential that had income of $300 million to $3 billion. Considered one of his favourite aphorisms was: You’re higher off paying a steep worth for an amazing firm than getting a so-so firm at a cut price worth. 

Utilizing that philosophy, one in every of his early successes was the 1985 acquisition of Akron, Ohio-based Sterling Jewelers. Different offers at his first agency included Common Vitamin Cos. in 1989. 

In 2005, he partnered with different personal fairness corporations to purchase Dunkin’ Manufacturers, which franchised Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins ice cream retailers, for $2.4 billion.

Funding System 

Lee stayed together with his fundamental funding system when he began Lee Fairness. It invested in Deb Retailers, a junior style retailer, took Edelman Monetary Group personal in 2012 and made a giant wager on Papa Murphy’s Worldwide, a take-and-bake pizza chain.

Lee typically stayed out of the limelight when offers have been reported, based on Edgar Bronfman Jr., who labored with Lee to purchase Warner Music Group in 2004. 

He stated Lee’s philosophy was: You don’t should win if you happen to get all the pieces you need. Let the opposite celebration have the social and press victories.

“Tom all the time targeted on the enterprise final result for his traders, not his private profile,” Bronfman advised Bloomberg in 2014.

There have been some flubs alongside the way in which, which Lee sometimes identified to potential traders when making a pitch on a brand new deal. A $500 million funding in 1999 in insurer Conseco Inc. soured when it sought chapter safety three years later.

Lee’s agency was additionally rattled by its $507 million funding in Refco Inc., the US futures and commodities brokerage agency. Refco filed for chapter safety after it disclosed in 2005 that its chief govt had hidden $430 million in debt for years.

Outdoors of labor, Lee was an avid artwork collector, proudly owning works by artists together with Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock and was a trustee of Lincoln Middle and the Museum of Trendy Artwork, based on Forbes.

Lee was born in Washington, to Herbert and the previous Mildred Schiff. His father labored for the Shoe Company of America, based by his father-in-law, Robert Schiff. Lee graduated from Harvard Faculty in 1965 with a bachelor’s diploma in economics.

Earlier than his personal fairness profession, he spent eight years on the First Nationwide Financial institution of Boston, the place he rose to vp by 1973, specializing in lending to expertise corporations.

His first spouse was Barbara Fish. They divorced in 1995 after having two youngsters, Zach and Robbie, in 27 years of marriage. He later married Ann Tenenbaum. They’d three youngsters: Jesse, Nathan and Rosalie.

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