Crescent Capital Affiliate Agrees to Acquire Yakima

Business Wire, July 3, 2001

Business Editors

ATLANTA & ARCATA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 3, 2001

Unites Industry Leading Companies

Crescent Capital Investments, Inc., has arranged the financing for the acquisition of Yakima Products, Inc. by WaterMark, the world's leading paddlesports company.

In June 1998, Crescent affiliates acquired Perception Group, Inc. and Dagger Canoe Company. Management then merged the leading manufacturers of kayaks and canoes into one company under the WaterMark name.

Yakima Products is a leading manufacturer of sports-related racks and rack accessories for vehicles. The products include racks for bicycles and kayaks as well as new non-rack products such as child joggers, bicycle trailers, and snowshoes.

As WaterMark and Yakima are privately held, terms were undisclosed.

Crescent Capital President David Crosland said, "This deal fits perfectly with our strategic vision of ensuring that a portfolio company has the resources needed to achieve its business objectives and is in a position to take advantage of unanticipated business opportunities. We provided the capital to allow WaterMark to pursue a strategically important acquisition."

"WaterMark is delighted to announce that Yakima will join our group of premium brands," said John Rukavina, WaterMark's CEO. "Yakima is one of the strongest brands in specialty outdoor sports, posting three straight years of double digit growth. During that time, WaterMark has firmly established its leadership position in the kayak industry. The strengths of our respective R&D departments, management teams and East/West Coast logistics will present exciting new growth opportunities for our specialty dealers."

Duncan Robins, Yakima's CEO and an avid kayaker, sees a number of similarities between the two companies. "We have similar cultures. The people at both WaterMark and Yakima are passionate about outdoor activities, product innovation and the environment. Both our companies are located in places where their products are used to the limit. Yakima's founders are paddlers and kayak racks were among our very first products."

WaterMark, of Easley, South Carolina, is the world's leading paddlesports company with the Perception, Dagger, Islander, Mainstream and Harmony lines. Arcata, California-based Yakima, the leading manufacturer of multisport car racks, has recently expanded their offerings to include cargo and child trailers for cyclists, as well as snowshoes, under their "Destination Hardware" initiative.

Other Crescent Capital transactions include: Caribou Coffee Company, Inc., the second leading non-franchised coffeehouse in the United States; Lee Industries, the number-one manufacturer of commercial paving equipment; DVT Corporation, a provider of technology-based machine vision systems; and MediFAX-EDI, a leading provider of health care information services.

Founded in 1997, Crescent Capital is the U.S. private equity arm of First Islamic Investment Bank, E.C., based in Bahrain. Crescent Capital and First Islamic seek $30 million to $150 million equity investment opportunities in profitable, high-growth companies. Since 1998, Crescent Capital has completed eight transactions valued at more than $650 million.