Web Deals Direct Has Completed a Financing With East West Bank and Acquired the SCHÖN and ABFLEX Business Lines From EZ Innovations
Consumer Products & Services
Raising Capital,
Mergers & Acquisitions,
Buy-Side Advisory
Harrisburg, North Carolina
HOUSTON, January 27, 2020 — GulfStar Group (“GulfStar”) is pleased to announce that Web Deals Direct LLC (“Web Deals Direct” or the “Company”) has completed a financing with East West Bancorp, Inc. (“East West Bank”) and acquired the SCHÖN and ABFLEX business lines from EZ Innovations Ltd (“EZ Innovations”). GulfStar served as the exclusive financial advisor to Web Deals Direct throughout the transaction, which closed on December 23, 2019.
Web Deals Direct is an Amazon-focused consumer products company with brands and products across several product categories, including Home & Kitchen, Garden & Outdoor, Pet Supplies and Office Products. The Company sells its products primarily on Amazon in eight countries across North America and Europe. Web Deals Direct utilizes a proprietary software platform, developed in-house, that manages all aspects of the business and identifies product expansion opportunities.
“The Web Deals Direct story is one which clearly illustrates what can happen when the applied intelligence of a sophisticated and entrepreneurial Management team intersects with the extraordinary commercial potential of the Amazon Marketplace platform,” said Roshan Gummattira, managing director of GulfStar. “In four short years, Web Deals Direct has raced from being a back-of-the-napkin start-up to becoming a significant commercial enterprise with 2019 volumes approaching 2MM units and astounding year-over-year growth characteristics.”
“We would like to congratulate Adam, Rich and Lisa for developing a visibly differentiated analytical and operational platform and for creating a company culture that rewards creative thinking, intense customer care and decisive action in the ultimate competitive market environment,” added Scott Winship, managing director of GulfStar. “We would also like to expressly acknowledge the strong efforts and foresight of the team at East West Bank. Their ability to quickly comprehend the Company’s operational complexities, high velocities and embedded growth opportunities was a difference maker in getting these transactions completed on a very short timeline.”
Jeff Matthews and Evan Sultzbaugh led the financing team for East West Bank. Jennifer Rosenthal, Ryan Sykora, Charles Ciaccio and Elizabeth Ho of Koenig, Oelsner, Taylor, Schoenfeld & Gaddis PC served as legal advisor to the Company.
The GulfStar team was led by Managing Directors Roshan Gummattira and Scott Winship along with Associates Jon Sanfelippo and Andrew Winters.
About EZ Innovations
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, EZ Innovations is a third-party seller on the Amazon marketplace across Europe. Its proprietary consumer products include its SCHÖN and ABFLEX brands.
About East West Bank
East West Bancorp, Inc. is a publicly owned company with total assets of $43.3 billion and is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “EWBC”. The Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, East West Bank, is one of the largest independent banks headquartered in California. East West is a premier bank focused exclusively on the United States and Greater China markets and operates over 130 locations worldwide, including in the United States markets of California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Texas and Washington. In Greater China, East West’s presence includes full service branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shantou and Shenzhen, and representative offices in Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Xiamen.
About GulfStar Group
GulfStar is a leading middle market investment bank headquartered in Houston. GulfStar specializes in providing merger and acquisition advisory services, institutional private placements of equity and debt, and general corporate finance advisory services to companies with revenues or enterprise values generally ranging from $25 million to $350 million. Since its formation in 1990, GulfStar has completed 700 transactions in 35 states and 16 foreign countries across a variety of industries.