View Single Post
      03-13-2018, 12:36 PM   #72
bmwstephen
Private First Class
37
Rep
132
Posts

Drives: 95' M3, 17' M2
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Bay Area, CA

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by TRZ06 View Post
Yep. Basically off loading a business in the red heading for bankruptcy.

Restarting with no debt.

Shitty practices and I have no respect for it
As Commercial Finance guy and Dinan enthusiast, let me set the record straight before you guys tarnish an established and reputable tuner without facts.

Dinan was not headed to bankruptcy. Did they have financial challenges like every other business? Yes! but was it enough to head them towards bankruptcy? far from it! In fact, they have more cash now and support from institutional investors than ever.

In 2013, A private Equity (ever heard of it?) firm called Dublin Clark originally acquired them and made them a subsidiary of their automotive aftermarket chain, Driven Performance. They grew the business even further and in 2015, the Company sold them to another PE firm called Sentential Partners for even more money.

https://www.dpbrands.com/
http://dubinclark.com/milo-portfolio/dpb/
http://www.sentinelpartners.com/secondary.asp?pageID=7

Now the thing with Private Equity Firms, is that their goal is to not buy money losing businesses. Those companies have to have the cash flow to support the returns of the investments made by their limited partners. In addition, when times are rough, they do not tend to cut and run on their investment.

So the fact that it sold twice to two private equity firms is pretty telling. I would know because I worked for one of the various financial institutions who tried to bid twice unsuccessfully to help finance those buyout. But it was super competitive opportunity.

Dinan has always come through and stuck by their guns. Ever recall the whole z8 chassis fiasco? Steve Dinan himself personally paid for new chassis and compensated owners accordingly at the expense of the company. I have yet to see anyone else do the same. I also finance many of Dinan's suppliers in the area and they always get paid on time.

For obvious reasons, because Steve sold the rights and trademarks of his original Company to DublinClark it is obvious why he can't use the Dinan house hold brand (ever watch the movie The Founder about McDonalds? a lot like that) but at least there was a graceful path to exit for him. It is mutually agreed upon in the transaction otherwise, he could never retire from the business. It is a common in the business world but you probably will never get a lot of publicity about this for PR reasons.

Carbanh and Dinan Engineering have a strong partnership and its evidence by their support of each other so I suggest people stop jumping into negative conclusions.

Last edited by bmwstephen; 03-13-2018 at 01:21 PM..
Appreciate 6