PR97935

COLUMBIA, Md. and VICTORIA, BC, Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Authority Brands, a residential services franchising platform in North America,

today announced that British Columbia Investment Management Corporation

("BCI"), one of the largest institutional investors in Canada, has agreed to

acquire a significant minority stake in the company, alongside funds advised by

Apax Partners LLP ("Apax Funds"), which will retain majority ownership.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/795374/Authority_Brands_Logo.jpg

Authority Brands is the premier home service franchisor in North America. Its

family of home service franchise brands are leaders in their industry,

providing homeowners with services from the property line to the roof line.

Authority Brands' companies include 12 leading home service franchisors:

America's Swimming Pool Company, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, The Cleaning

Authority, Color World Painting, DoodyCalls, Homewatch CareGivers, Mister

Sparky, Monster Tree Service, Mosquito Squad, One Hour Heating and Air

Conditioning, STOP Restoration and Woofie's. Together, these brands provide

home services through approximately 860 franchise owners across North America.

Since the Apax Funds' initial investment in 2018, Authority Brands has grown

from two home service franchisors to the current 12, expanding into new

geographies and services and building out a powerful infrastructure.

"We are proud to have partnered with the Authority Brands team to help build,

both organically and through strategic acquisitions, a leading residential

services franchising platform," said Ashish Karandikar, Partner at Apax. "We

continue to see significant room for growth by Authority Brands and are pleased

to join with BCI and members of the leadership team in the next phase of the

company's journey as they extend their platform through M&A, and strategic

initiatives including franchise development, technology transformation and

international expansion."

"As a long-term investor, we seek to invest in market-leading companies with

strong management teams, multiple levers for growth, and resilient business

models that create shareholder value, such as Authority Brands," said Dave

Hong, Senior Managing Director, Private Equity at BCI "We look forward to

working with Authority Brands and Apax to generate compelling risk-adjusted

returns for our pension plan and insurance fund clients."

"We could not be more pleased than to continue to build the premier residential

services franchisor in partnership with Apax and BCI," said Craig Donaldson,

Chief Executive Officer of Authority Brands. "Both partners will add

substantial value as we aim to capture further share in the highly fragmented

home services market, including by evaluating M&A opportunities in new service

verticals."

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is

expected to be completed in Q4 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.

Apax was advised by Harris Williams, Boxwood Partners, William Blair & Company,

Moelis & Company (financial advisors), Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher &

Bartlett, DLA Piper, and Lathrop GPM (legal counsel), and Ernst & Young

(financial and tax advisor).

About BCI

British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is amongst the largest

institutional investors in Canada with C$211.1 billion under management, as of

March 31, 2022. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Vancouver

and New York City, BCI is invested in: fixed income and private debt; public

and private equity; infrastructure and renewable resources; as well as real

estate equity and real estate debt through our independently operated platform

company QuadReal Property Group. With our global outlook, we seek investment

opportunities that convert savings into productive capital that will meet our

clients' risk and return requirements over time.

BCI's private equity program actively manages a C$24.8 billion global portfolio

of privately held companies and funds with long-term growth potential.

Leveraging our sector-focused teams in business services, consumer, financial

services, healthcare, industrials, and technology, media and

telecommunications, we work with strategic private equity partners to source

and manage direct and co-sponsor/co-investment opportunities.

For more information, please visit bci.ca (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3652425-1&h=2587959851&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bci.ca%2F&a=bci.ca

).

About Apax Partners LLP

Apax Partners LLP ("Apax") is a leading global private equity advisory firm.

For nearly 50 years, Apax has worked to inspire growth and ideas that transform

businesses. The firm has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of

more than $60 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global

sectors of Internet/Consumer, Tech, Services, and Healthcare. These funds

provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class

companies. For more information see: www.apax.com (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3652425-1&h=2136683777&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apax.com%2F&a=www.apax.com

).

Apax Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in

the UK.

About Authority Brands

Authority Brands is the premier residential services franchising platform

providing services from the property line to the roof line. Authority Brands'

companies include 12 leading home service franchisors: America's Swimming Pool

Company, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, The Cleaning Authority, Color World

Painting, DoodyCalls, Homewatch CareGivers, Mister Sparky, Monster Tree

Service, Mosquito Squad, One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning, STOP

Restoration and Woofie's. Together, these brands provide home services through

approximately 860 franchise owners across North America. Authority Brands,

which is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, is dedicated to supporting

individual franchise owner growth with a full suite of marketing, technology,

and operational support, allowing them to focus on providing exceptional

service to homeowners. Please visit www.authoritybrands.com (

https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3652425-1&h=3400725240&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.authoritybrands.com%2F&a=www.authoritybrands.com

)for more information.

Contacts:

For Authority Brands

Heather McLeod / 410-794-1430 / heather@authoritybrandsllc.com

For Apax

Luke Charalambous / +44 20 7872 6494 / Luke.Charalambous@apax.com

For BCI

Gwen-Ann Chittenden / +1 778 410 7310 / media@bci.ca

SOURCE Authority Brands, LLC