NEW YORK, July 10, 2014 – Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York private equity investment firm, announced today that an affiliate of Castle Harlan Partners V has closed on the acquisition of Tensar Corporation, the leading global designer and manufacturer of proprietary and highly-engineered non-traditional site development solutions for the infrastructure, transportation, and construction markets. The purchase price was $400 million.
Tensar’s principal product offerings, which include its patented TriAx geogrid and Geopier technologies, are used widely in soil stabilization, earth retention, foundation support and erosion control applications and are increasingly used in pavement optimization. The Company has a global footprint with sales in approximately 80 countries. Tensar’s products offer a unique value proposition to customers by significantly reducing overall construction costs, shortening required construction times, and increasing the useful life of the resulting infrastructure. The Company maintains strong and longstanding relationships with departments of transportation in addition to other contacts in states, counties, and cities, and a large and diverse group of engineers, contractors and exclusive distributors.
Tensar is headquartered near Atlanta, Georgia and has manufacturing facilities in Morrow, Georgia; Poseyville, Indiana; Centre, Alabama; Shadsworth, England; Wuhan, China; and St. Petersburg, Russia.
“By inventing and bringing to market superior cost and technically performing soil and pavement stabilization solutions, Tensar Corporation, through its Tensar International Corporation, Geopier Foundation Company and North American Green business units, has grown into a worldwide provider for key infrastructure markets, including transportation, commercial, residential, industrial and municipal properties, environmental, mining and well sites,” said Don Meltzer, president and CEO of Tensar Corporation. “Castle Harlan’s confidence in us is a testament to our market leadership and the Company’s tremendous prospects for growth.” Tensar’s management will continue to operate the Company.
Marcel Fournier, the Senior Managing Director on the Castle Harlan team, said, “The acquisition provides a unique platform with a strong, experienced management team that has built the undisputed market leader in the non-traditional site development solutions industry. We look forward to working closely with Tensar to help it continue to grow in the years ahead.”
Heather Faust, Managing Director of Castle Harlan, said, “We are looking forward to our partnership with CEO Don Meltzer and his team. Tensar is a solid platform, and we believe that Castle Harlan’s global business experience will help expand the Company’s product offerings in existing and new geographies and into adjacent end markets.” Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle market companies worldwide. The Castle Harlan team of 21 investment professionals has completed 54 acquisitions with more than 43,000 employees and total transaction value in excess of $11 billion. Castle Harlan, along with its affiliates, has managed investment funds with equity commitments of over $6 billion. The firm traces its roots to the start of the institutionalized private-equity business in the late 1960s. Since 1999 Castle Harlan has invested in Australia and Southeast Asia with its affiliate CHAMP Private Equity in Sydney and Singapore.
Castle Harlan's current portfolio companies include Shelf Drilling, the leading global independent provider of shallow-water jack up drilling rig services; Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of books and entertainment products to libraries and retailers; and Gold Star Foods, the leading nutritional food distributor to K-12 schools in California, Arizona and Nevada.