Private Equity-owned Companies in Times Square 

1050 Avenue of the Americas #1; 750 7th Ave.; 625 8^th Ave.

Private equity owners: Ares Management, Ontario Teachers Pension Fund (since 2007)

Owned by private equity since: 2003

Deal value: $1.65 billion

Employees: 12,415 (including 7,545 part-time)

Looking for a power boost from private equity, GNC instead has looked a little vitamin-deprived since being bought out. First purchased by Apollo Management in 2003 for $750 million dollars, today GNC and its employees are not “living well.” Sales declined from $1.43 billion at the time of the 2003 takeover to just $1.32 billion in 2005 when Apollo publicly offered approximately half the shares of the company. During that time, employment also declined by 17%. When it became clear the IPO wasn’t going to go well, Apollo decided instead to pull a quarter-billion dollars out of the company while looking for an outright buyer. In 2007, Ares Management and the Ontario Teachers bought the company from Apollo for $1.65 billion. Given that Apollo’s original equity share for GNC was $277 million, that’s a return on steroids.