NEW YORK, April 9, 2007 - Castle Harlan, the New York-based private equity investment firm, announced today that its portfolio company, AmeriCast Technologies, a leader in the design and manufacture of large, complex steel castings primarily for the heavy construction, mining and rail industries, has completed the acquisition Atlas Castings and Technology, a leader in the manufacture of specialty steel castings for the energy and defense industries.
The combined company will have annual revenues in excess of $300 million.
AmeriCast, based in Atchison, Kansas, makes highly engineered steel castings, some weighing more than 60,000 pounds. Its customers include Caterpillar, Electro-Motive Diesel and General Electric. It had revenues in calendar 2006 of $206 million, an increase of 11 percent from the previous year.
Atlas is based in Tacoma, Washington, and has metal-casting and machining facilities there and in Chehalis, Washington. It produces castings of up to 40,000 pounds, primarily for the oil and gas industry and for nuclear and fossil-fuel power generation, as well as for the U.S. Navy. Its revenues for calendar 2006 were $89 million, an increase of 6 percent from 2005.
Howard Morgan, senior managing director at Castle Harlan, and Erica Tsai, Castle Harlan associate, who lead the firm's negotiating team, said in a statement: "Atlas has a clear leadership position in its industries and possesses outstanding technical capabilities. The merger of these two companies gives the combined business a strong strategic balance of industries and customers."
Castle Harlan, along with management and Bradken Operations Pty. Ltd., an Australian steel products manufacturer, had purchased AmeriCast last November in a transaction valued at $110 million. Bradken is a former portfolio company of Castle Harlan's Australian affiliate, CHAMP Private Equity.
Castle Harlan, Bradken, and members of the senior management of both AmeriCast and Atlas invested in AmeriCast's acquisition of Atlas. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
AmeriCast Technologies, Inc. (www.americasttech.com) is a world leader in the design, manufacture and supply of highly engineered steel and iron sand castings, machined components and assemblies. AmeriCast casts large and difficult-to-manufacture parts and is a critical supplier to Fortune 50 manufacturers in the locomotive, mass transit, mining, construction and heavy-duty truck industries.
The company now operates six business units: Atchison Steel Castings based in Atchison, Kansas, and St. Joseph, Missouri; Amite Foundry based outside of New Orleans, Louisiana; Prospect Foundry based in Minneapolis, Minnesota; London Precision Machining based in London, Ontario; AmeriCast Global Services, and Atlas Castings and Technology. All of the units report to Tom Armstrong, the chief executive officer of AmeriCast.
Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle-market companies in North America and Europe. Its team of 20 investment professionals has completed 48 acquisitions since its inception with a total value of $9 billion. The firm traces its roots to the start of the institutionalized private-equity business in the late 1960s.
Castle Harlan's current portfolio companies, which employ more than 42,000 people, include Ames True Temper, a leading manufacturer of lawn and garden tools and accessories; RathGibson, a leader in the manufacture of stainless steel and high alloy precision-welded tubing, and Perkins & Marie Callender's, Inc., which operates and franchises 618 family restaurants in the United States and Canada.