Murry Gunty

Murry N. Gunty is the founder and head of Blackstreet Capital, a private equity firm based in Bethesda, Maryland, United States.

Blackstreet focuses on control buyouts of underperforming corporate orphans with $25–150 million in revenues. The firm has more than $170 million of committed capital and a management team of experienced private equity investors and operations executives. Gunty’s current firm was profiled in an October 2008 Washington Post article. Blackstreet’s industries of interest include niche manufacturing, value added distribution, specialty retail, education and training, healthcare services and devices, and restaurants.

Prior to launching Blackstreet, Gunty was a general partner at the private equity firm Jacobson Partners, a small private equity firm that invests in companies with up to $150 million in revenue. He was also a partner in the real estate principal investment area of investment bank Lazard Freres, where he co-managed $3 billion of capital in real-estate related private equity funds.

Business Transactions

Under Gunty’s leadership, Blackstreet has purchased thirteen companies representing more than $1 billion in revenue. Blackstreet has and realized five investments, with an average return of 5.5 times invested capital, according to the Washington Post and has saved over 5,000 jobs.

Gunty’s deals at Blackstreet have included the sale of Florida Tile to Panariagroup of Italy, earning a reported 14 times invested capital for Blackstreet investors.

In 2008, Blackstreet sold Houston Harvest, Inc. and Gift Products, Inc. (“HHI/GPI”) to Signature Brands, LLC. HHI/GPI, based in Franklin Park, Illinois, is a leading supplier of seasonal food gifts and popcorn tins to mass retailers (e.g., Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart. The Company has licensing agreements with major food and entertainment companies, which it uses to brand its popcorn tins and gift baskets.

Also in 2008, Blackstreet affiliate FTCA, Inc. purchased Fleetwood Folding Trailers, Inc. (FFT) from Fleetwood Enterprises. Founded in 1967, Fleetwood manufactures folding camping trailers under the brands Highlander, Americana, Destiny and Evolution.

In 2007, Gunty’s firm announced the sale of PJCOMN Acquisition Corporation to Essential Pizza, Inc. PJCOMN owns and operates 82 Papa John's Pizza restaurants in Colorado and Minnesota. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but at the time, Papa John’s was the world’s third largest pizza company with 3,090 restaurants (614 company-owned and 2,476 franchised) operating in 50 states and 27 countries.

Gunty in 2007 also presided over Blackstreet’s purchase of Swift Spinning, Inc. from Marubeni Corporation of Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1906, Swift is a producer of cotton yarns for knitting, weaving and hosiery customers. The company’s products carry the labels of Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, J.C. Penney, Sears, Mervyns, Tommy Hilfiger, Gold Toe, Land’s End, L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer, among others. In 2006, Blackstreet’s predecessor, Milestone Capital, purchased American Combustion Industries, Inc. (ACI) from Washington Gas Light Holdings Company. Industry veterans, Tim and John Kirlin, invested alongside Blackstreet in the transaction and were widely credited for turning the company around. The company’s revival was chronicled by the Maryland Gazette.

Recent Transactions

In 2010, Blackstreet Capital purchased S.C.-based Park Seed Company for $13 million. The company sells plant seeds and other gardening supplies online and through a catalog business and is located in Greenwood, home of the annual South Carolina Flower Festival. Park Seed is famous for working with NASA to send seeds into space as part classroom education programs.

In January 2012, Blackstreet veered from its usual distressed-asset deals in purchasing business and marketing communications franchisor AlphaGraphics, Inc., formerly owned by the UK-based G A Pindar & Son Ltd. Blackstreet Partner Lawrence Berger characterized the deal:: “This is a unique deal for our team; Blackstreet typically purchases underperforming companies. AlphaGraphics, which is healthy and profitable, does not fall into this category. The company has not only weathered some difficult economic times, but continues to lead its industry in average center sales and net center growth.”

Personal Info

In 2006, Gunty, or one of his representatives, requested that a blogger Mark Pincus redact his name from an essay about ethics that claimed that in 1992 whilst a student at Harvard Business School Gunty had attempted to rig the elections of the school's prestigious Finance Club. Gunty claimed that the blogger had violated his right to privacy.

He has a wife and 3 children: one girl and two boys.

External links

• Blackstreet Capital official site