Bear Sterns Private Equity Group Buys Vitamin Shoppe

New York-based private equity firm FdG Associates has sold supplements retailer and direct marketer Vitamin Shoppe Industries to The Bear Stearns Co. Inc.'s (NYSE: BSC) private equity unit, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking. Bear Stearns paid $310 million—approximately half in cash and the remainder as a credit line and debt convertible to equity—for its controlling stake, according to a Dec. 2 Bloomberg article via NPIcenter.com.

New York-based Bear Stearns plans to sell The Vitamin Shoppe stock to the public and expand the chain to more than 700 stores from its current 120. “This is still a pretty regional play and we believe we can take it national,'' states Richard Perkal, a Bear Stearns senior managing director via Bloomberg.

FdG along with Jeffrey Horowitz, Vitamin Shoppe founder and CEO, and Thomas Tolworthy, Vitamin Shoppe president and COO, have retained an equity interest. Horowitz and Tolworthy will continue running the company.

In 1997, FdG led a recapitalization to provide liquidity for North Bergen, N.J.-based Vitamin Shoppe founders and capital for future expansion. At the time, FdG and co-investor J.P. Morgan Partners purchased 70 percent of the business, according to a Dec. 2 PRNewswire article.

In April this year Vitamin Shoppe announced aggressive expansion plans. At the time, the 25-year-old company had 108 stores.