Overview

Carolina Barnes Corporation is a merchant and investment banking group, which has provided comprehensive corporate financial services during the past 39 years for companies involved in defense and military; media, entertainment and telecommunications; real estate; high technology content; maritime transportation; and energy production and storage.

Carolina Barnes leads management buyouts, engages in the placement of equity and debt securities, conducts valuation studies, finances leveraged transactions, initiates and closes mergers and acquisitions, and arranges strategic partnerships.  Its Carolina Barnes Capital Inc. had conducted brokerage activities since 1989 and was registered as a broker-dealer with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the NASD-FINRA.  In 1998, the firm amended its registration since the focus of its private activities no longer required such registration or membership.

The firm also participates as a principal in buyout transactions through its merchant banking group, which was founded in 1985, and has participated as an investor in over three dozen transactions.  Carolina Barnes prides itself on maintaining long-term relationships with each client and is thus able to understand a company’s strategic goals and to match its needs with the availability of capital in global institutional money markets.

Investment Banking

Carolina Barnes provides investment banking services for high quality companies in which it maintains an ownership or principal position in several industries:

  • Defense and Military-Oriented Manufacturing and Services

  • Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications

  • Real Estate

  • Technology and Content

  • Leisure Time

  • Maritime Transportation

  • Energy Production and Storage

The firm concentrates its investment banking resources on small to medium-sized transactions ranging from $10 million to $350 million.  Our investment banking strategy is based on two fundamental concepts - industry knowledge and long-term relationships.

Merchant Banking

Carolina Barnes engages in merchant banking activities.  Merchant bankers serve in a principal or ownership role jointly with clients through direct investment in the client companies or by accepting ownership interests in lieu of, or in addition to, receiving monetary fee compensation upon transaction completion. 

Carolina Barnes Corporation’s merchant banking activities include:

  • Direct capital investment by Carolina Barnes Corporation or affiliate

  • Early stage and venture capital investment

  • Co-investment with other sources of capital

  • Providing guarantees or other non-cash financial support

  • Lending debt as bridge capital prior to the close of a transaction

Carolina Barnes’ merchant banking activities have included capital investment in a wide range of companies such as: StorageBlue, an owner of self-storage warehouses across from NYC in Jersey City; Movies USA, Inc., a magazine publisher with over one million in controlled circulation; Pumping Iron, Inc., a producer of motion pictures and books and manager of fitness gyms in ownership with the former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger; Movietime Channel/E! Entertainment Television, a basic cable television programming company which was sold to a Comcast consortium; MJD Communications, Inc., which was formed to acquire and operate local exchange carrier rural telephone companies; Seaboard Property Management, an owner and manager of office buildings in Connecticut; and other diverse ventures.