NEW YORK, November 21, 2006 - Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York private equity investment firm, announced today it has completed the purchase of AmeriCast Technologies, Inc., a North American leader in the design and manufacture of large, complex steel castings, in a transaction valued at $110 million.
An agreement to make the acquisition was announced just last week. Other participants in the acquisition included AmeriCast's management and Bradken Operations Pty. Ltd., an Australian steel products manufacturer and a former portfolio company of Castle Harlan's Australian affiliate. The seller was KPS Special Situation Funds, also a New York private equity firm.
AmeriCast is based in Atchison, Kansas, and has manufacturing facilities there and four other cities in the United States and Canada. It makes highly engineered steel castings, most of which generally weigh more than 10,000 pounds; the largest may weigh more than 60,000 pounds.
AmeriCast has a leading share of the U.S. market for large steel castings. Its customers include Caterpillar, Electro-Motive Diesel and General Electric. The castings are used in such products as large mining trucks and locomotives.
AmeriCast was acquired by Castle Harlan Partners IV, L.P., a private equity investment fund organized and managed by Castle Harlan. The fund closed in August 2003 with capital commitments of $1.2 billion. It is now approximately 66 percent invested.
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 19 investment professionals has completed 48 acquisitions since its inception with a total value in excess of $8 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 53,000 people, include the Polypipe Group, a leading supplier of plastic pipe systems in the United Kingdom and Ireland; Ames True Temper, a leading manufacturer of lawn and garden tools and accessories; and Perkins & Marie Callender's, Inc., which operates and franchises 618 family restaurants in the United States and Canada.
Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners Pty Limited ("CHAMP Private Equity") was formed in 2000 and is Australasia's oldest and largest independent manager of private equity funds. It is adviser to the CHAMP I and CHAMP II funds, which have funds of approximately A$1.5 billion for investment in buyouts in Australasia.