The investment-banking arm of Capital Management Group (CMG) Investments L.L.C. (No. 9 on the BE ASSET MANAGERS list with $1.8 million in assets managed) was part of the syndicate that underwrote the $870 million initial public offering for Seagate Technology Inc. common stock on Dec. 11. Priced at $12 per share, CMG sold 1.45 million of the 72.5 million share offering to its institutional investors. The deal marks CMG’s first million-plus share deal. “I flooded the gates at both Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney and gave them information on my firm, why we make sense for the transaction, [and] that I had a group of buyers and could help increase the demand,” explains Shawn D. Baldwin (pictured above), chairman of the firm. “I’d go to the lead underwriters and I [would] make sure that everybody from the CEO to the CFO, to the head of the desk, to the person underwriting the deal knew about my firm; knew about me; and knew about the value I bring to the transaction.” Seagate Technology, a manufacturer of computer hard disc drives, had been one of the Nasdaq’s high-flyers in the late 1990s until taken private in 2000. The stock now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol STX.
ICV Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm that targets minority and inner-city companies (No. 7 on the 2002 BE PRIVATE EQUITY list with $130 million in assets under management), recently acquired Chung’s Foods of Houston. Chung’s, with $26 million in annual revenues, is a leading supplier of Asian-style, fresh and frozen appetizers and entrees. Along with the new acquisition, ICV also announced that Bridgette P. Heller, a former executive vice president and general manager at Kraft Foods, is now chief executive officer of Chung’s Foods. Heller was one of the highest-ranking African American executives at Kraft and brings 18 years of management and marketing experience to her new position.