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KPS CAPITAL
PARTNERS PORTFOLIO COMPANY
INTERNATIONAL EQUIPMENT SOLUTIONS, LLC ACQUIRES
CWS INDUSTRIES (MFG) CORP.
New York, NY (July 25,
2012) – KPS Capital Partners, LP (“KPS”) today announced that its
portfolio company International Equipment Solutions, LLC ("IES”) has
acquired, through an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary, CWS Industries
(Mfg) Corp. (“CWS” or the “Company”).
This is the fourth acquisition by IES since its formation. Financial terms of the transaction were
not disclosed.
KPS formed IES in September 2011
as a platform for investments serving the construction, agriculture,
landscaping, infrastructure, recycling, demolition, mining, and energy
industries. At that time, KPS announced IES’s first two acquisitions,
Paladin Brands Holding, Inc. and Crenlo LLC
from Dover Corporation. In
November 2011, Stephen Andrews was retained as Chief Executive Officer of
IES to lead the integration of the first two acquisitions and to
aggressively grow and globalize the company. As part of its globalization strategy,
IES acquired Siac do Brasil,
Ltda. (“Siac do Brasil”),
a manufacturer of cab enclosures in Brazil, in June 2012.
CWS is a leading manufacturer of
highly-engineered attachment products, including tire manipulators, cable
reelers, grapples, buckets and various large
excavator attachment products. Its
customers include a global network of dealers and end-users in the
mining, oil & gas, forestry and construction markets. CWS is focused on understanding each of
its customers’ unique applications and geological conditions and as a
result, its attachments and fully integrated equipment systems are
tailored to the specific needs of its customers and are able to withstand
some of the world’s harshest environments. The Company employs 140 people
at two facilities, located in Surrey, British Columbia and Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada.
Raquel Palmer, a Partner at KPS,
said, “We are very proud of the progress IES has made to date. In only a brief ten months, KPS has
created a truly global manufacturing company as a result of four highly
synergistic acquisitions. The
Company has dramatically improved its profitability under our ownership
and exceeded all of our expectations for growth. IES continues to capitalize on
opportunities to grow its business internationally, and we believe that
with each acquisition and subsequent integration, IES increases the value
proposition offered to its customers.”
Stephen Andrews, Chief Executive
Officer of IES, said, “The acquisition of CWS is another important step
towards the globalization and diversification of IES. We are very impressed with CWS’s rapid
growth trajectory, customer base, engineering capabilities and broad
portfolio of highly engineered attachment products. This acquisition not only strategically
enhances our footprint with dealers in Canada and the U.S. Pacific
Northwest, but
also opens up IES to a growing base of sales relationships located
internationally in South America, Russia and Asia. Additionally, the acquisition enhances
IES’ product portfolio to include a suite of attachments with
applications in the high-growth mining, oil & gas and forestry
end-markets, which are currently underserved by IES. As demonstrated with both this
acquisition and the acquisition of Siac do Brasil, IES remains committed to supporting our
customer’s global expansion initiatives with localized supply, technical
resources, and parts and service support.
IES intends to invest significant additional capital and resources
into CWS to ensure the highest level of production quality and capacity
for our customers. IES has made tremendous progress in our first ten
months and I am very confident our future is bright.”
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton and Garrison LLP and Goodmans LLP
served as legal counsel to KPS and IES and its affiliates. Financing for
the transaction was provided by a syndicate of institutional investors
agented by Regiment Capital Advisors, LP and PNC Bank, National
Association.
About
International Equipment Solutions, LLC
IES is a global engineered
equipment platform serving the construction, agriculture, landscaping,
infrastructure, recycling, demolition, mining, and energy markets. IES
operates through six operating units, including Paladin, Genesis, Pengo, Jewell and CWS, all of whom are leading
manufacturers of engineered attachment tools for operator driven
equipment, Crenlo, a leading North American
manufacturer of cab enclosures for operator-driven equipment as well as
specialty electronic enclosures, and Siac do Brasil, the leading supplier of heavy equipment cab
enclosures and locomotive sub-assemblies in the South American market.
IES’ customers include major OEMs, national rental fleet companies and
hundreds of independent and OEM-aligned dealers. IES employs over 2,800 people and operates 17
manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, Germany, and
Brazil.
About
CWS Industries (Mfg) Corp.
Headquartered in Surrey,
British Columbia, Canada, CWS is a leading manufacturer of top quality
attachments, cabs and conversions for heavy equipment used by various
high-growth end markets such as mining, oil and gas, forestry,
agriculture and construction. CWS offers both standard and
highly-engineered attachments for excavators, loaders, crawlers and other
heavy equipment. With a keen understanding of its customers’ applications
and geological conditions, CWS provides attachments and fully integrated
equipment systems that are able to withstand some of the world’s harshest
environments and are tailored to the specific needs of its customers. CWS
is managed by an experienced team, which has transformed the Company from
a supplier of basic attachments into a manufacturer of highly-engineered
products with superior quality for a variety of specialized applications.
About
KPS Capital Partners, LP
KPS Capital Partners, LP is the
manager of the KPS Special Situations Funds, a family of private equity funds
with over $2.8 billion of assets under management focused on constructive
investing in corporate carve-outs, restructurings and other special
situations. KPS has executed highly complex corporate carve-out
transactions on a global basis, and has acquired businesses from numerous
Global Fortune 500 companies. The KPS investment strategy targets
manufacturing and industrial companies with strong market positions that
are going through a period of transition or experiencing operating or
financial difficulties. For nearly two decades, the partners of KPS have
worked with the management teams and associates of its portfolio
companies to improve operating and financial performance by focusing on
cost reduction, efficiency, operational excellence and strategic growth
initiatives. KPS
Portfolio Companies have aggregate annual revenues of $7.8 billion, operate 99 manufacturing plants in 24
countries, and employ over 33,000 associates, directly and through joint
ventures worldwide.
The KPS investment strategy and portfolio companies are described in
detail at the firm's website: www.kpsfund.com.
