Blue Sage Capital has completed the sale of Ashbrook Simon-Hartley, a provider of separation services in the wastewater industry, to Swedish corporate buyer Alfa Laval. “This transaction is exciting for all parties and delivers strong returns to our investors,” said Peter Huff, Co-Founder and Managing Member at Blue Sage Capital. “We wish Ashbrook continued success with the Alfa Laval team.”
Ashbrook Simon-Hartley designs and installs liquid and solid separation technologies for the wastewater industry. The company has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, and Brazil. Ashbrook is headquartered in Houston, TX (www.ashbrookcorp.com).
Blue Sage Capital invested in Ashbrook in 2005 and completed two follow-on acquisitions that expanded the company’s product offering. The private equity firm partnered with Ashbrook’s management team to achieve continued growth and increased profitability throughout Blue Sage’s ownership. “We were able to partner with an outstanding team at Blue Sage. Blue Sage provided active operational expertise, and we grew the business together. We are enthusiastic about the future with Alfa Laval,” said Bob Williams, President of Ashbrook.
Blue Sage Capital specializes in growth, recapitalization and buyout financings of smaller middle-market companies based in Texas and the Southwest. Most of Blue Sage’s investments are in established, profitable companies with $5 million to $100 million of revenue and $2 million to $8 million of cash flow at the time of investment. Blue Sage invests in a variety of industries, with each initial investment in a company ranging from $5 million to $15 million. The firm was founded by Peter Huff and Jim McBride and is based in Austin, TX (www.bluesage.com).
Alfa Laval is a provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. Alfa Laval is listed on Nasdaq OMX, and had annual sales of about SEK 28.6 billion (approx. 3.2 billion Euros) in 2011. The company has 16,000 employees and is based in Lund, Sweden (www.alfalaval.com).
Raymond James served as exclusive financial advisor to Ashbrook Simon-Hartley and Blue Sage Capital in connection with this transaction.
