GE Provides $79.5 Million Credit Facility to Market Leader in Franchised Auto Body Repair and Painting

NORWALK, Conn. December 1, 2008: GE Antares Capital today announced it served as administrative agent for a $79.5 million senior secured credit facility to support the acquisition of Maaco Franchising by Driven Brands, the parent company of Meineke Car Care Centers, Econo Lube N’ Tune, AutoQual, Aero Colours, Drive N Style, and Tortal.net. Driven Brands is a portfolio company of Carousel Capital’s third investment fund, Carousel Capital Partners III.

Founded in 1972, Maaco is a franchisor of auto body repair and painting with 47% of the US automotive production paint market and nearly 500 franchise centers operating in the U.S. and Canada. Maaco leads the industry with excellent service and value to customers. The company has been cited numerous times by Entrepreneur magazine throughout the past decade as #1 in the franchise category in its Annual Franchise 500 survey.

“Our team understands business cycles and can reliably deliver for our customers in difficult market environments,” said Dave Swanson, Managing Director at GE Antares. “As the leader in middle market sponsor finance, we continue to deliver financing solutions that support our sponsor relationships.”

Jason Schmidly, Partner at Carousel Capital said, “We have come to trust the hard-working team at GE Antares over the years. We appreciate how they worked with Carousel on this complex transaction involving the simultaneous acquisition of Driven Brands and Maaco. The acquisition of Maaco was a key component to the vision of the Driven Brands management team as it builds the leading automotive aftermarket franchising platform. We look forward to continuing our relationship.”