Westbridge Capital Ltd., through its subsidiary, Overture Promotions Inc., closed the acquisition of the business of promotional products company Overture. Westbridge Capital will be supporting a team led by Lou Weisbach and JoAnn Gilley.
Weisbach founded HA-LO Advertising Specialties in 1971, and served as its CEO for almost three decades. During Weisbach’s tenure, HA-LO became the world’s largest promotional products company, with revenue of $770 million and a market valuation of $1.25 billion. Gilley was an original investor in Overture, and has been the CEO of Overture for three-and-a-half years, leading the company to 300% revenue growth during that time.
Overture is one of the promotional product industry’s leading distributors and one of its fastest growing companies, with reported 2020 revenue of $127 million, up from $82 million in 2019. Overall Industry sales in 2020 were $21 billion.
“Overture’s strong management team responded well to the challenges and changing business environment in 2020 and achieved significant growth in its client base and revenue,” Weisbach said. “After looking at many potential acquisitions, we decided Overture would make an excellent platform company to serve as our foundation.
“Our vision is to create the premier international branding company to help organizations build global brands with best-in-class marketing, licensing and promotional products,” Weisbach continued. “Our growth plan will be driven by both organic and strategic acquisition opportunities. We will be aggressive, yet selective, in acquiring companies in the coming months that not only build upon the Overture Promotions platform but add products and services.”
Weisbach’s team is made up of himself, Gilley, Michael Nemlich and Mark Serdar.
“The Overture team is excited to officially start this new adventure,” said Gilley. “We look forward to adding new services and technology to support our customers and scale our operations, and to welcome acquisitions to the Overture family.”
Nemlich, an investment banker covering the healthcare, consumer and business service sectors, was responsible for taking HA-LO Advertising Specialties public. Shortly after, he joined the company, where he was involved in acquisitions, structuring of deals and strategic planning, all of which contributed to HA-LO’s growth. He also served as vice president of investor relations, and was responsible for all financial and marketing communications.
Serdar was a managing director at JP Morgan Chase, where he held multiple senior positions, including chief technology officer and firm-wide head of globalization strategy. He was an executive vice president and CSO at Expert Global Solutions, a $1.3 billion business process outsourcing company. He also held management roles at Accenture and Ernst & Young’s Strategic Consulting Group.
“Our objective is to leverage technology to completely differentiate ourselves in the market,” said Serdar. “We are delighted that we share a vision with Westbridge Capital to create and build exciting new technology solutions.”
“We are excited about teaming up with Lou and JoAnn, and the rest of the Overture team to lead our growth in the highly fragmented promotional products industry,” said Mike Meekins, president of Westbridge Capital. “The industry is primed for consolidation, and we believe the acquisition of the business of Overture as a platform company is a fantastic start. We look forward to funding more acquisitions going forward.”
