private equity founded 1986 founder ronald burkle headquarters los angeles california united states products leveraged buyout website yucaipaco.com the yucaipa companies llc is an american private equity firm founded in 1986 by ronald burkle . 1 it specializes in private equity and venture capital with a focus on middle market companies growth capital industry consolidation leveraged buyouts and turnaround investments . it generally invests 25 300 million in companies with 300 500 million in revenues . 2 yucaipa has a history of leveraged buyouts in supermarket and grocery chains beginning with jurgensen s markets in 1986 . after several standalone investments in the late 1980s it went on to lead the consolidation of west coast retail that occurred during the 1990s due in part to the rise of discount centers like wal mart . 3 4 in october 2014 the yucaipa companies acquired british retailer tesco s fresh & easy chain five years after it had entered the u.s. market . contents 1 history 1.1 aloha airlines purchase 2 controversy 3 references history edit yucaipa boeing 757 200 bizjet 1987 food 4 less grocery franchise of kansas city acquired for 35 million 1989 boys markets acquired for 375 million 1991 alpha beta california supermarket chain acquired for 271 million 1994 smitty s phoenix based supermarket operator acquired for 138 million 1994 ralphs grocery co. southern california supermarket chain acquired for 1.5 billion ; alpha beta and boys outlets subsequently rebranded as ralphs 4 1997 ralphs food 4 less merged with fred meyer 1998 fred meyer sold to kroger for 8 billion 1995 dominick s a chicago based grocery store chain acquired for 750 million 1998 dominick s sold for 1.85 billion to safeway 1999 invests 3 million in gamespy and 25 million in cyrk inc. 2004 tds logistics purchased by yucaipa according to tds logistics site 2 2004 yucaipa along with piccadily restaurant investment group llc a special purpose entity formed by ramy el batrawi acquires piccadilly restaurants 2005 yucaipa becomes the majority shareholder in aloha airlines in a 100 million bid to purchase the airline . 2005 acquires 40 % stake in pathmark for 150 million 5 2007 acquires stake in the great atlantic & pacific tea company as part of ga & p s acquisition of pathmark 6 2008 acquires stake in barnes & noble 7 2009 yucaipa doubles its stake in barnes & noble to 16.8 % during e reader war with amazon.com citing corporate governance concerns 8 2012 divests barnes & noble shares to yucaipa investors 7 2011 increases stake in the great atlantic & pacific tea company as part of a restructuring following its bankruptcy 9 2012 stake in barneys new york 10 2014 acquired fresh & easy from tesco 11 aloha airlines purchase edit in february 2006 aloha airlines was taken into private ownership by yucaipa companies and aloha investment group llc head by ramy el batrawi . after 61 years in business passenger operations shut down on march 31 2008 due to rising fuel prices new competition for inter island travel a tightening credit market and dwindling interest by investors in the airline industry . in january 2011 yucaipa won federal bankruptcy court approval to buy the aloha name and other intellectual property for 1.5 million with a stipulation that it not resell the name to mesa air group the parent of go mokulele . citation needed it is unknown at this time what the future plans are for the aloha name . caught in the pink slime controversy and with interim chief executive ron allen citing ongoing media attention that has dramatically reduced the demand for all ground beef products in 2012 yucaipa s afa declared chapter 11 bankruptcy . based in king of prussia pennsylvania afa at the time the controversy broke had about 850 employees and annual revenues of 958 million . 12 13 controversy edit former u.s. president bill clinton a close friend of founder ron burkle was an advisor to yucaipa . 14 from 2003 to 2006 bill and hillary clintons tax returns show total yucaipa partnership income of 12.5 million . according to the 2007 summary provided by hillary clinton s presidential campaign the clintons earned 2.75 million from the yucaipa partnership . 15 references edit yucaipa cos. history . funding universe . retrieved 6 february 2015 . company overview of the yucaipa companies llc . bloomberg business . retrieved 6 february 2015 . phil r. kaufman may august 2000 . structural change in the u.s. food industry pdf . foodreview . 23 2 29 34 . a b roane kit r. september 15 1994 . california grocery deal yucaipa to buy ralphs . new york times . pathmark yucaipa deal okd . los angeles times . june 10 2005 . retrieved 2013 09 11 . canada hillary september 4 2012 . yucaipa returns to market with 1.65 billion target . wall street journal . retrieved 2013 09 11 . a b burkle s yucaipa divests b & n stake . wall street journal . june 5 2012 . retrieved 2013 09 11 . sage alexandria 2009 11 13 . burkle ups barnes & noble stake cites concerns . reuters . retrieved 2013 09 11 . a & p wins exit financing files plan . the deal pipeline . retrieved 2013 09 11 . 1 dead link tesco offloads loss making fresh & easy chain . bbc.co.uk . 2013 09 10 . retrieved 2013 09 10 . milford phil and shruti date singh afa foods files for bankruptcy citing pink slime coverage april 2 2012 bloomberg news . retrieved 2012 04 02 . lewis al dude people just don t want to eat pink slime marketwatch april 4 2012 . retrieved 2012 04 04 . john r. emshwiller march 16 2009 . bill clinton leaves yucaipa business partnerships . wall street journal . mcintire mike april 5 2008 . clintons made 109 million in last 8 years . new york times . v t e private equity and venture capital basic investment types buyout venture mezzanine growth secondaries equity co investment history history of private equity and venture capital early history of private equity private equity in the 1980s private equity in the 1990s private equity in the 2000s terms and concepts buyout financial sponsor management buyout divisional buyout buy sell agreement leveraged recapitalization dividend recapitalization venture angel investor business incubator post money valuation pre money valuation seed money startup company venture capital financing venture debt venture round structure private equity firms and funds limited partnership limited liability company carried interest management fee publicly traded private equity business development company venture capital trust private investment in public equity pipe pledge fund investors corporations institutional investors pension funds insurance companies fund of funds endowments foundations investment banks merchant banks commercial banks high net worth individuals family offices sovereign wealth funds crowdfunding related financial terms aum cap table capital call capital commitment capital structure distribution waterfall ebitda envy ratio high yield debt ipo irr leverage liquidation preference m & a pme taxation of private equity and hedge funds undercapitalization vintage year private equity and venture capital investors private equity firms venture capital firms angel investors portfolio companies retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title yucaipa companies & oldid 743513482 categories 1986 establishments in californiaaloha airlinesbarnes & noblecompanies established in 1986companies based in los angelesgamespyholding companies of the united statesprivate equity firms of the united statesthe great atlantic & pacific tea companyventure capital firms of the united stateshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from september 2013all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from august 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom 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