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May 4, 1999
- For Immediate Release
Cherokee is a leading designer and manufacturer of power supplies for
telecommunications, networking, and high-end computer work stations.
Los Angeles, CA - GFI Energy Ventures LLC today announced
the closing of a substantial investment in Tustin, California-based Cherokee
International. Through this investment GFI and its co-investors acquires
a majority interest in Cherokee. The founder executives of Cherokee will
continue to manage the Company. Cherokee is one of the fastest growing
companies in the rapidly expanding power supply industry. The Company
is a leading designer and manufacturer of a broad range of switch mode
power supplies for original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, in the telecommunications,
networking, high-end workstation, and other electronic equipment industries.
GFI Energy Ventures LLC originates and leads investments in businesses
benefiting from and facilitating the deregulation, competitive, and technological
change sweeping the power industry worldwide. Cherokee is the 18th transaction
which GFI has originated in this field since 1995 with aggregate investments
now totaling over $360 million.
Power supplies are the essential components which convert power from the
form received from a utility or other power source, purifies it, and delivers
it to the energy-consuming components of virtually all complex electronic
devices. In so doing, power supplies perform many essential functions
related to the supply, distribution, and regulation of electrical power.
The portion of the market which Cherokee addresses is estimated to be
about $7 billion in North America. Cherokee sells primarily to the largest
and most important OEM manufacturers in the markets Cherokee supports.
Longtime customers include IBM, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Lucent,
Alcatel, Nortel, Silicon Graphics, and Honeywell.
In addition to GFI Energy Ventures which originated the transaction and
is a direct investor in it, the investors in Cherokee are led by Oaktree
Capital Management (a Los Angeles-based investment firm with over $13
billion under management) and include RIT Capital Partners plc (the publicly
traded, London-based investment company chaired by Lord Rothschild).
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