Pioneer of private equity investment, Thomas H. Lee, passed away at the age of 78, according to his family. They did not reveal the cause of his death.
Citing unidentified police sources, the New York Post has reported that Lee was found dead at his Fifth Avenue Manhattan office on Thursday morning. The office is the headquarters of his investment firm. It is reported that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Officials, however, are awaiting the medical examiner’s findings to identify the cause of death.
Lee was a pioneer in the application of leveraged buyouts, also known as LBOs. In LBOs, the buyer will borrow money to fund the transaction and will usually repay the loan with future earnings from the acquired business. The objective would be to sell the business for a greater price, either by going public or to another buyer.
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He founded Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Partners in 1974 with $150,000 from an inheritance and a debt from his brother, and he oversaw the company until 2006. That year, Lee parted ways with his eponymous business and founded Lee Equity.
By 2020, Lee had invested more than $15 billion through both companies in countless deals. His infamous Snapple agreement was included in this. One of Lee’s most well-known and successful leveraged buyouts was his $135 million acquisition of Snapple in 1992. For $1.7 billion, Lee sold it to a rival, Quaker Oats, in 1994. According to a 1997 Forbes profile, his Snapple return on equity was 334% after his company received $927 million from the transaction. With those earnings, Lee’s value rose to $2 billion by 2022, according to Forbes.
One of his favorite proverbs was: It’s better to pay a high price for a great business than to pay a low price for a mediocre one. One of his earliest triumphs was the 1985 purchase of Sterling Jewelers, a company based in Akron, Ohio, using this strategy. At his first company, he also completed agreements with General Nutrition Cos. in 1989.
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Lee was an enthusiastic art collector outside of work, possessing pieces by artists like Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. He also served as a trustee for the Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, according to Forbes.
Those who knew Lee best on Wall Street quickly began to grieve. The co-CEOs of Lee’s previous company, THL, Todd Abbrecht, and Scott Sperling, described him as a “generous and gracious individual.”
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