Bahrain’s Investcorp has acquired US-based Fortune International (Fortune Fish & Gourmet), a specialty distributor of seafood and gourmet food products. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Investcorp said in a statement.

Fortune offers more than 12,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) to fine-dining restaurants, grocery stores, hotels and other customers, primarily across the Midwestern US.

The CEO of Fortune, Sean O’Scannlain, will continue to lead the company and maintain a “significant” ownership stake.

Investcorp and O’Scannlain have capitalized the company with a conservative capital structure to fund a deliberate acquisition strategy and further accelerate Fortune’s geographic expansion, the statement adds.

Investment bank Houlihan Lokey, acted as financial advisor to Fortune on this transaction.

“Specialty foodservice distribution in the United States is a highly fragmented, resilient and growing $40 billion market,” Hazem Ben-Gacem, Co-Chief Executive Officer at Investcorp said.

“We believe that Fortune is well-positioned to capture significant share with its unique platform as a scaled, specialty seafood enterprise delivering superior product quality and service across a wide breadth of products,” Ben-Gacem said.

This transaction represents the Bahraini asset manager’s fifth partnership with a US-based founder-led business over the last two years.

The Bahrain-based alternative investment manager’s US-based real estate team has acquired two industrial and logistics portfolios for $800 million back in November last year.

The portfolio acquired consists of 126 industrial properties totaling 10.2 million square feet across five major metropolitan areas through two separate transactions.

Investcorp’s net profit dropped 16 percent to $47.6 million in the six months period ending December 31, 2019 compared to the same period last year.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; editing by Seban Scaria)

(Gerard.Aoun@refinitiv.om)

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