Atlas Holdings, the Greenwich-based private investment and equity firm, has completed its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of LSC Communications Inc., the largest manufacturer of books in the U.S. and a leading manufacturer and distributor of magazines, catalogs and office products. The financial aspects of the deal were not revealed.
The sale was supervised by a U.S. bankruptcy court. In April, the Chicago-based commercial printer and office products company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Shortly before filing, it reported a net loss of $295 million for 2019 on sales of more than $3.3 billion.
LSC had been formed in 2016 as a spinoff from R.R. Donnelley. It was due to be acquired by rival printer Quad/Graphics in a $1.4 billion deal. However, the U.S. Department of Justice blocked the deal saying it would be anticompetitive and allow Quad/Graphics to dominate the field.
Timothy J. Fazio, co-founder and managing partner of Atlas Holdings, said, “Atlas is the ideal fit as LSC”™s new partner. Our roots are in paper ”“ the investment that launched Atlas more than two decades ago was the purchase of a single paper mill in Indiana. Since then, our team has developed deep sector expertise in printing, paper and adjacent industries such as packaging and paper receipts and labels.”
Atlas Holdings stated that it focuses on control investments in companies that are experiencing financial or operational stress and that it has been active in acquiring underperforming or discontinued operations from corporate sellers in addition to acquiring businesses through bankruptcy purchases, out-of-court restructurings and reorganizations.
