Charlotte financial firm expected to go public next week

A Charlotte financial firm that provides commercial equipment loans to construction, transportation and waste companies is expected to go public next week, according to Renaissance Capital, which tracks initial public offerings.

Commercial Credit Group plans to sell 7.3 million shares of stock at a price between $15 and $17 per share, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At the top of the range, the company would raise up to $123 million.

The financial firm is the second Charlotte-based company with IPO plans for next week. Fast-food chain Bojangles’ is also expected to begin trading after selling shares for between $15 and $17.

Commercial Credit Group, which provides loans and leases to midsize and family-owned businesses, expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CCR,” the filing states. It touts its service to “underserved” middle-market companies as one of its competitive strengths because large finance companies and banks focus their efforts on transactions that exceed $1 million.

In the IPO, the company will receive proceeds from 4 million of the shares being sold, while the rest will go to two investment firms that own stakes in the company: Lovell Minnick Equity Partners and Archbrook Capital Management.

The banks underwriting the IPO will also have the option to buy an additional 1 million shares, with those proceeds going to the two investment firms.

Lovell Minnick Equity Partners purchased a controlling stake in Commercial Credit in 2012 from Falfurrias Capital Partners, a Charlotte-based private equity firm co-founded by former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl Jr. and the bank’s former chief financial officer, Marc Oken.

Falfurrias bought a 70 percent ownership interest in the financial firm in 2010 in a transaction that totaled $20 million. McColl’s firm was also an investor in Bojangles’ before selling the restaurant chain to another private equity firm in 2011.

Lovell Minnick currently owns a 75 percent interest in Commercial Credit, but that will drop to 41 percent after the stock offering, not counting the extra shares that could be purchased by the underwriters.

Commercial Credit, led by Dan McDonough, was founded in 2004 and established its headquarters in Charlotte on West Trade Street with satellite offices in New York, Illinois and Ontario, Canada. Last year, the company made 3,900 loans and leases worth from $50,0000 to $2.5 million to more than 1,800 customers, according to the filing.

The company said it employs more than 50 sales representatives directly responsible for selling $1.9 billion of loans and leases since 2004. The company said it expects to report a profit between $12 million and $13 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015, compared with $9.3 million a year earlier.

Commercial Credit said it plans to use proceeds from the IPO to pay down debt and for general corporate purposes. After the offering, it will have 17.4 million shares outstanding, giving the company a market value of nearly $300 million at $17 per share.

This story was originally published May 1, 2015 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Charlotte financial firm expected to go public next week."