FILE PHOTO: The 2023 Ryder Cup
By David Carnevali and Anirban Sen
(Reuters) – Private equity firm Platinum Equity has hired advisers to explore a sale of Club Car that could value the golf cart maker at more than $2 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said.
Platinum Equity is in the early stages of working with investment bank Goldman Sachs on the sale, which is expected to attract interest from buyout firms, the sources said.
Club Car generates 12-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of more than $200 million, the sources added, requesting anonymity because the matter is confidential.
Platinum Equity and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Club Car produced its first golf carts with steering wheels in the late 1950s. They are used by the biggest organizations in the circuit such as the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, and in tourism and other sectors to move people across short distances. The company also maintains and repairs its carts, working with over 350 distributors and dealers worldwide, its website showed.
Platinum Equity acquired Club Car from industrial components maker Ingersoll-Rand in 2021 for about $1.7 billion. One of its competitors, E-Z-GO, is owned by Textron, maker of the Cessna business jet.
(Reporting by David Carnevali in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)
