Philly firm buys Florida airline, Cuba routes
Versa adds Silver Airways to its retail chains
Versa Capital Management LLC, a Philadelphia-based turnaround investment firm headed by Greg Segall, says it has bought Florida-based Silver Airways LLC, which serves cities in Florida, the Washington, D.C. area and the Caribbean. Previous owner was Victory Park Capital, a Chicago private-equity firm. More from my colleague Linda Loyd here.
Versa invests $1.4 billion for clients led by the underfunded Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS), which has invested more than $600 million in funds controlled by Versa since 2005, and had collected back about $123 million of the total as of last summer, with hope of getting back the rest, plus profits, someday in the future. PSERS paid Versa more than $1 million in fees last year.
Other Versa investments include retailers WetSeal and Eastern Mountain Sports, Polartec, Standard Parking, bomb-defense developer Allen-Vanguard, yacht-builder Hatteras and more.
Versa was organized with help from Philadelphia fund manager and real estate investor Ira Lubert, who also chairs the Penn State board.