Riverside LBO firm buys JC Whitney catalog seller

NEW YORK, June 26 Reuters reported that Riverside Co., a midsized leveraged buyout firm with more than $500 million under management, on Wednesday said it purchased catalog auto parts retailer J.C. Whitney & Co. for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition of the Chicago-based retailer is the 16th purchase made by Riverside from its most recent fund, the $412.7 million Riverside Capital Appreciation Fund 2000, the firm said.

J.C. Whitney is one of the largest mail-order retailers of auto parts, publishing a thick catalog distributed monthly to millions of households in North America, Europe and Japan.

Riverside, with offices in New York, Cleveland and elsewhere, said the Whitney purchase is its eighth deal in 2002 and one that continues its "open-throttled investment pace in what has otherwise been a relatively sedate buyout market."

"We see many opportunities to improve the performance of the company and to build the business through add-on acquisitions as well as organic growth," said Brooke Ablon, a