Altus Capital Partners has sold Aqua-Chem, a maker of water purification products, to Crimson Investment. Aqua-Chem was acquired by Altus and Aqua-Chem’s management in March 2006 from The Cleaver-Brooks Company.
Aqua-Chem manufactures and provides water purification and heat transfer products and services to the military, pharmaceutical, energy, military and bottled water industries. The company was founded in 1929 and is headquartered in Knoxville, TN (www.aqua-chem.com).
During the term of its ownership, Altus expanded the operations of Aqua-Chem into other industrial markets that require high quality water services. As part of this market expansion, Aqua-Chem launched more than a dozen new products, including large vapor compression systems, reverse-osmosis water purifiers, pretreatment and sanitary process distribution systems, waste heat plate type evaporators, vacuum vapor compression units and titanium and copper-nickel heat exchangers.
“Aqua-Chem is a prime example of excellence and determination in creating a diversified global company,” said Russell Greenberg, Managing Partner at Altus and former Chairman of Aqua-Chem. “We want to thank David Gensterblum, the management team and the employees who have worked hard over the past eight years in order to make Aqua-Chem a leader in its markets.”
Altus Capital Partners invests in corporate divestitures, management-led buyouts, and privately held or family-owned businesses with manufacturing operations based primarily in the Midwest and Eastern regions of the United States. Target companies will have at least $5 million of EBITDA and an enterprise value from $30 million to $100 million. The firm is headquartered in Wilton, CT with an additional office near Chicago in Lincolnshire, IL (www.altuscapitalpartners.com).
Crimson invests in middle market companies across a range of industry sectors. Areas of particular interest include: manufacturing (energy, medical, agriculture & food, safety & testing, pollution control and branded consumer products); components (pumps, valves, fuel systems, engineered plastics, and electronics); and services (food service, restaurants, safety testing, healthcare and education). The firm is based in Brisbane, CA (www.crimsoninvestment.com).
BB&T Capital Markets represented the shareholders of Aqua-Chem on this transaction. The firm provides capital and advisory services including research, sales and trading, equity and debt underwriting, M&A advisory and corporate banking. BB&T is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the US with $182.7 billion in assets and a market capitalization of $23.8 billion, as of June 30, 2013. BB&T is based in Winston-Salem, NC (www.bbtcapitalmarkets.com).
