May River Capital has acquired Pride Engineering in partnership with management and other co-investors. The transaction included the majority of Pride’s prior shareholders, including Mark Zauhar, founder; Bruce Allyn, President; and David Gadow, Director of Engineering & Manufacturing.
“We are delighted to partner with May River. They share our vision for growing Pride and can provide financial, strategic and professional resources required to accomplish our goals and to provide our customers with the best products in the world,” said Bruce Allyn, President of Pride.
Pride Engineering designs and manufactures multi-piece machine tools and related equipment for the front-end production of two-piece food and beverage cans. The company’s product offering includes can body-forming tool packs, can bottom formers and precision grinders. The company’s products are used in over 365 can-making lines around the world. Pride is headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park (www.pridecan.com).
“We were immediately drawn to Pride’s proprietary technology, its strong customer relationships, its large, global installed base, and the mission critical nature of Pride’s products,” said Steve Griesemer, May River Partner.
May River Capital invests from $10 million to $40 million of equity in companies with revenues of at least $15 million and EBITDA between $3 million and $15 million. Sectors of interest include manufacturing, commercial services, as well as supply chain and value-added distribution. Control investments are preferred but the firm will consider significant minority investments. May River was founded in January 2012 by Chip Grace, Dan Barlow and Steve Griesemer and is headquartered in Chicago (www.mayrivercapital.com).
“May River is pleased to be selected to partner with Pride’s management team in the acquisition. We look forward to assisting Bruce and the team in realizing Pride’s full potential in the years to come,” said Chip Grace, a May River Partner.
Minneapolis-based Investment bank Franklin Partners (www.franklinpartnersinc.com) served as financial advisor to Pride and the selling shareholders in this transaction. Fifth Third Bank (www.53.com) provided senior and subordinated debt financing to support the transaction.
© 2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-26-14
