Leeds Equity Partners Closes on Investment in Covenant Review

New York-based private equity firm makes control equity investment in leading provider of fixed income research and analysis services

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Leeds Equity Partners, LLC

Sep 30, 2014, 08:00 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Leeds Equity Partners, LLC, the New York based private equity fund focused exclusively on investing in the Knowledge Industries, announced today that it has made an equity investment in Covenant Review, LLC ("Covenant Review" or the "Company") in partnership with Company executives Adam Cohen and Paul Ciasullo. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Covenant Review was founded in 2006 by Adam Cohen, a noted capital markets lawyer, to provide institutional investors and other bond and loan market participants with unparalleled understanding of the legal documentation governing their securities investments. The New York based firm is relied upon by investors worldwide, including hedge funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, broker-dealers, pension funds and endowments, as the authority on bond and loan covenants. Customers use Covenant Review's services as risk management tools, sources of investment ideas, benchmarking tools to compare deal structures and investment process and workflow management solutions. Cohen and Ciasullo will continue to lead the business.

"We are tremendously thankful to our customers for the great trust that they have placed in us for assisting in their risk management and alpha generation," said Cohen. "We serve our customers by explaining the actionable possibilities of legal documents, which otherwise can be very difficult for investors to understand in context. We look forward to increasing the scale and breadth of our product offerings and geographic footprint with the support of our new partners at Leeds Equity."

"We are enthusiastic about partnering with Covenant Review," said Robert A. Bernstein, Senior Managing Director and Co-Founder of Leeds Equity Partners. "The Company provides an invaluable resource for investment professionals looking to integrate a smart and reliable solution with their own investment process."

Ciasullo said, "I always wished for a better, more efficient manner with which to understand credit documents and navigate securities precedents when I was a bond trader. Covenant Review has answered this credit market need for investors with a compelling information services solution. Leeds Equity's partnership is a testament to the strong platform that the entire Covenant Review team has built and will serve as a critical resource in helping drive our next stage of growth."

"Leeds Equity's investment in Covenant Review will create a research and analytics growth platform within the financial information services sector," said Scott VanHoy, Principal at Leeds Equity Partners. "Management and Leeds Equity have identified a number of organic and inorganic opportunities to scale the Company, and we look forward to working in concert with Adam and Paul to execute on those growth initiatives."

Covenant Review was represented by The Jordan Edmiston Group, Inc., a New York City based investment bank that specializes in the media, information, marketing services and related technology industries.

About Leeds Equity Partners:

Leeds Equity Partners, LLC, is a New York based private equity firm focused exclusively on investing in the education, training and information services industries (the "Knowledge Industries"). The firm was founded by Jeffrey T. Leeds and Robert A. Bernstein in 1993 and has raised and managed more than $1.1 billion of capital across five funds.

The Board of Advisors of Leeds Equity Partners includes: Chairman General Colin L. Powell, former Secretary of State, National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Vice Chairman Gaston Caperton, a former President of the College Board and a former two-term Governor of West Virginia; Tim J. Fitzpatrick, the former CEO of Sallie Mae Corporation; Thomas F. ("Mack") McLarty III, President of McLarty Associates and former White House Chief of Staff under President William J. Clinton; Dr. Barry A. Munitz, former Chancellor of the California State University school system and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust; Guillermo Nigaglioni, President and CEO of Instituto de Banca y Comercio, Inc.; Richard W. Riley, former Secretary of Education under President William J. Clinton and two-term Governor of South Carolina; Alec Ross, former Senior Advisor for Innovation to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman of the Board of the Special Olympics.