Golf company CFO eyes private infusion.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: FINANCING

Tom Severson, a former public company CFO, has a bird's eye view of the private equity market. He's now the CFO of the newly constituted Nicklaus Companies LLC, the enterprise run by famed golfer Jack Nicklaus, which this summer received a $145 million investment from real estate mogul Howard Milstein through his New York Private Bank and Trust.

Severson says the middle-market private company, based in North Palm Beach, Fla., and known until the transaction as Golden Bear International, looked long and hard at various financing options before settling on the Milstein family, a noted developer of New York real estate.

"There are financial goals as well as strategic goals, and we needed a good partner" that could help grow the business beyond the immediate influence and lifetime of 67-year-old Jack Nicklaus himself, Severson said in an interview.

The finance chief says the investment process involved the hiring of PGP Capital, a boutique investment banking firm that is well-connected in Asia. Severson, who had worked with PGP years earlier, said the Nicklaus company needed to leverage outside investment banking work and felt that a major investment bank "might not have the patience" for that.

Golden Bear drew "a lot of interest from private equity and strategic partners," he adds, and there were "extensive negotiations over what kind of financial structure and style of people" would be brought in. The Milstein group, he says, "was very consistent, very professional. It's a...