Rock-It Cargo sells majority stake to investment firm

Music industry logistics service provider Rock-It Cargo said July 31 that it has sold a majority stake of the company to ATL Partners, a private equity investment firm focused on the aerospace, transportation, and logistics sectors.

Los Angeles and New York-based Rock-It Cargo was founded in 1978 and supplies freight forwarding solutions to the live entertainment and music touring markets as well as the fine arts, sports, corporate events, industrial power projects, and humanitarian relief sectors.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but New York-based ATL Partners said that Rock-It's existing management, including Founder and CEO David Charles Bernstein, will maintain a "significant" equity stake in the company.

The move could supply Rock-It with the resources to expand its share of the specialty markets in live music and related events, the firm said. "We believe that by partnering with ATL, who know and understand our core logistics solutions well, we can accelerate growth by capturing more opportunities in our existing end markets and aggressively pursuing adjacent markets through organic initiatives and strategic acquisitions," Bernstein said in a statement.

In a statement on its website, ATL said it believes the aerospace, transportation, and logistics sectors are positioned to benefit from three trends: the impact of globalization on the demand for cargo transport, the evolution of complex supply chain requirements requiring sophisticated logistics solutions, and income growth in emerging markets that is driving demand for air travel and imported goods.

Rock-It serves many of those areas by supporting service offerings across air, ocean, and inland transportation through its brands RICH Forwarding Limited and Rock-It Cargo USA LLC. Rock-It works with music, live entertainment and sports clients including including Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Cirque Du Soleil, Ed Sheeran, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, WWE, Sotheby's, Christie's, APR Energy, and Apple.