Newly Formed Liberty Propane Closes Four Acquisitions

OVERLAND PARK, KS -- Liberty Propane, LP has announced the acquisition of four propane companies: Rocky Mountain Propane of Denver, Colorado, Gasamat Propane, in Commerce City, Colorado, Bells Mills Gas in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and Action Gas, located in Ebensberg, Pennsylvania. Liberty is a newly formed company created to acquire retail propane companies in selected regions of the United States. The formulation of the company is being jointly announced by Liberty Propane, LP, Jordan, Knauff & Company, a Chicago investment and merchant banking firm, and Sterling Capital Partners, a Northbrook, Illinois private equity firm. Liberty is funded by a $20 million initial capital commitment from Sterling Capital Partners. The funding occurred concurrently with the closing of the Gasamat acquisition.

Rocky Mountain Propane delivers approximately 6.5 million gallons from four retail locations in Colorado and northern New Mexico. Rocky Mountain’s CEO, Paul Greaves, will continue with Liberty for the time being in order to complete ongoing acquisition activity. Jeff Loudenback, Rocky Mountain’s Chief Financial Officer, will join Liberty as Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions, and Tom Lambert, Chief Operating Officer of Rocky Mountain, has accepted a position with Liberty as Vice President of Operations, Rocky Mountain Region.

Gasamat delivers over 1.2 million gallons in an around Denver, serving both the industrial and residential markets. Bells Mills primarily serves a residential base and delivers 600,000 gallons into that market, and has overlapping service territory with Action Gas, which delivers about 800,000 gallons. Liberty plans to retain all of the employees in all three locations.

Industry veteran Kent Misemer is CEO of Liberty Propane, which is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. “It is tremendously exciting to launch our new company and at the same time announce the closing of our first four acquisitions,” Misemer said. “All of these companies have been well managed and have great growth prospects. It is especially exciting to inherit the excellent management team at Rocky Mountain. This provides our new company with a tremendous boost because it allows us to build the bench ahead of the need.”

Misemer said Liberty’s philosophy would be to maintain the highest possible operational standards and would strive to be the industry’s employer of choice. “We want Liberty Propane to be at the top of its class in all the regions in which we operate,” Misemer said. “To do that, we’ve got to have the best people possible, and we plan to have the kind of work environment that will make them want to stay with us.”
Tom Knauff, Managing Principal of Jordan, Knauff & Company, will serve as chairman of Liberty’s board of directors and will assist Mr. Misemer with acquisition, operational and financial matters. Jordan, Knauff & Company specializes in middle market investment banking transactions with a focus, among other things, in energy distribution.

“Sterling Capital Partners is an ideal investor for Liberty,” Knauff said. Sterling focuses on buyout transactions, in which the firm has been active for the past 17 years. Operating in a variety of economic and market environments, Sterling has completed over 35 acquisitions, including strategic add-ons. “The principals of Sterling have extensive investment and operating experience,” Knauff added. “Over time, Sterling’s principals have developed a consistent, disciplined, repeatable process that yields outstanding results.”

Liberty’s executives state that they plan to continue to pursue acquisition opportunities in selected regions of the country.

The information presented herein may contain certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws. The Partnership’s actual future performance will be affected by a number of factors, risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, weather conditions, regulatory changes, competitive factors, and the operations of vendors, suppliers and customers, many of which are beyond the Partnership’s control. Future events and results may vary substantially from what the Partnership currently foresees, and there can be no assurance that the Partnership’s actual results will not differ materially from its expectations. The Partnership undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.