News

December 6, 2002

Norwest Mezzanine Partners’ Capital Enables Merger Of Adplex Inc. And Rhodes Printing Group

Norwest Mezzanine Partners announced today its investment to support the acquisition and merger of two premedia and printing services companies, Adplex, Inc. and the Rhodes Printing Group by Windward Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity fund.

AdPlex provides premedia and printing services to create marketing inserts for retailers, while Rhodes provides high-quality heatset printing services for the same market. Premedia services include all design and layout work prior to actual printing, software applications for segmenting and versioning, as well as the automation and systemization of work-flow processing. Heatset printing produces glossy, magazine-quality product. The combined entity, known as AdPlex•Rhodes, will be headquartered in Houston, Texas.

The transaction closed on December 3, 2002, and Norwest Mezzanine invested $15,000,000 of senior subordinated notes with warrants and $3,000,000 of common equity. “Windward Capital and management believe the formation of AdPlex•Rhodes will offer highly complementary product lines to a consolidated customer base that will be unmatched in the retail advertising industry,” stated Mark Monaco, a managing director of Windward Capital Partners. “Customers can look forward to advertising solutions that will collapse time-to-market, increase relevancy and improve ROI.”

Monaco added, “In assembling our financing sources, we needed a provider that understands the dynamics of this industry and believes in the strategic vision of this combined company. Norwest Mezzanine shares our investment philosophy of partnering with strong management teams and investing in businesses that generate consistent cash flow.”

“Our investment gives AdPlex•Rhodes the capital they need to execute their strategy, along with flexibility in the capital structure to appropriately manage cash flow,” says Michael Hall, partner at Norwest Mezzanine. “We are excited about the operational capabilities of the management team and the strategic vision of Windward Capital.”

Norwest Equity Partners (NEP) is a leading middle market investment focused on partnering with business owners and building companies into industry leaders. With a reputation for quality investments and exceptional financial returns since 1961, NEP manages nearly $5 billion of capital through a series of equity and mezzanine funds. Offering creative and flexible transaction solutions through management buyouts, recapitalizations and growth financings, NEP seeks $30-$150 million equity investment opportunities for growing and profitable companies within the agriculture, applied technology, business services, consumer products and services, distribution, healthcare and industrial industry sectors. NEP is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota; please visit nep.com for more information.