Advent International
David Mussafer, Chairman & Managing Partner
Overview
Notable Funds
Fund Scorecards (1)
Description
Boston-based, strong Latin America/Europe presence. GPE X raised $25B (2023) — largest fund ever. Portfolio: Olaplex (IPO then -85% stock decline), Aimbridge Hospitality (debt restructuring 2024). Tech investments via Advent Tech fund. ~350 investments across 42 countries since 1984.
Related Deals (7)
| Company | Sector | Year | Multiple | Leverage | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maxar Technologies | Industrial / Space | 2023 | 11x | 5x | active |
| Charlotte Russe | Retail | 2009 | 5x | 5x | bankrupt |
| TK Elevator (fka ThyssenKrupp Elevator) | Industrial | 2020 | 14x | 6x | active |
| Worldpay (Vantiv / FIS) | Financial Technology | 2010 | 8x | 5x | exited |
| Serta Simmons Bedding (Advent LBO) | Consumer Brands | 2012 | 8x | 6x | bankrupt |
| Aimbridge Hospitality | Real Estate / Hotels | 2019 | 10x | 5x | active |
| Lululemon Athletica (PE era) | Consumer / Retail | 2005 | 6x | 3x | exited |
Hot Potato Deals
Simmons Mattress
Seven PE owners, two bankruptcies. PE extracted $750M in profits while debt went from $164M to $1.3B. The company still exists as a shell.
Bankrupt TWICE (2009 and 2023). Debt went from $164M to $1.9B.
Serta Simmons Bedding
Advent merged Serta and Simmons — two PE-owned mattress companies — into one larger PE-owned mattress company with even more debt. Casper, Purple, and Tuft & Needle disrupted the traditional mattress industry with DTC models. Serta Simmons couldn't invest in marketing or product development under $2B+ in debt. Filed Chapter 11 in January 2023. The mattress industry is the ultimate PE graveyard: Simmons went bankrupt twice before, and now the merged entity went bankrupt again. Some industries just cannot support PE-level leverage.
Bankrupt January 2023. $2B+ in debt on a business disrupted by bed-in-a-box brands.