Revere National Corp., a Baltimore company that identifies itself as one of the nation's oldest and largest outdoor advertising companies, has changed hands for the second time in as many years.
Castle Harlan Inc. announced yesterday that it sold the Baltimore advertising concern along with a sister company -- Stait Outdoor Advertising Inc., also of Baltimore -- for $69.3 million to a venture fund operated by Merrill Lynch Capital Partners Inc. of New York.
Castle Harlan, a New York-based merchant banking company, acquired Revere National in January 1993. It bought Stait Outdoor this year.
"Everything stays the same," said Robert E. McLachlin, who serves as president of both Revere and Stait, which have their corporate offices at 217 East Redwood St. "The management will be retained, and it will continue to run the companies." He said the sale would not affect the company's 350 workers. The majority of them work out of state.
Mr. McLachlin said Revere does not have billboards in the city but is strong in the Washington, Wilmington, Del., and Delmarva peninsula markets. It also has billboards in four cities in Texas. Stait operates in the Philadelphia area. Combined, he said, the companies have about 7,500 billboard faces. Its customers range from small, local businesses to national concerns, including McDonald's and Wendy's restaurants and Coors and Budweiser beer.
Castle Harlan is a leveraged-buyout concern that bought the investment in the advertising companies on behalf of a group of investors. "They don't make any bones about it; the plan was to sell it down the road at a higher price," said Charles Storer, a spokesman for Castle Harlan.