New York private equity firm, Bessemer Investment Partners LLC, has acquired 73 Taco Bell restaurants in Texas as part of an asset sale with Houston-based KorMex Foods.
Terms of the deal, which closed in November 2018, were not disclosed. Bessemer, in a statement released Wednesday, said the firm has formed a new portfolio group, MAS Restaurant Group LLC, to oversee growth of the franchise operations.
MAS Restaurant Group, or MRG, will grow the operation, which includes two co-branded KFC/Taco Bell units and six co-branded Pizza Hut Express/Taco Bell locations in Houston and surrounding markets.
Bessemer said the asset sale includes offering “liquidity to KorMex’s founders and selling shareholders.”
Andrew Mendelsohn, a principal at Bessemer, said MRG will grow the Taco Bell system through both new store development and acquisitions in Houston and beyond.
MRG’s management team will include former KorMex executives including Chad Motsinger, who was named CEO of the new portfolio. He was previously the COO at KorMex. Ben Walsh, a former vice president at California Pizza Kitchen, has been named the CFO.
“Over the past 18 years, we have built a successful company serving both our customers and our employees in the Houston community,” Motsinger said in a statement. “Our partnership with BIP will allow us to continue that success as well as create a platform for new growth opportunities.”
Bessemer was formed in early 2018 to invest in lower middle market companies across various sectors, including industrials, business services, consumer products and services, and insurance services.
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