EagleTree Capital has acquired a majority stake in Airtech Vacuum, a provider of specialized pressure technologies.
Airtech Vacuum designs and manufactures a range of pressure technology products including vacuum pumps, regenerative blowers, compressors and valves. The company’s products are used in the alternative energy, food processing, medical, packaging, and transportation sectors. Airtech Vacuum was founded in 1992 and has approximately 150 employees with manufacturing and engineering facilities in New Jersey, Europe and Asia and warehouse facilities in Atlanta and San Francisco. The company is headquartered in Rutherford, NJ (www.airtechusa.com).
EagleTree acquired its interest in Airtech from founder and Chief Executive Officer Tom Latsos and other management shareholders with funds from EagleTree Partners IV, a $790 million fund which closed in September 2016. Mr. Latsos and the other management shareholders will retain significant ownership in the company and will remain in their current roles. “We are very pleased to be partnering with EagleTree,” said Mr. Latsos. “We look forward to capitalizing on the firm’s specialty industrial expertise and strategic insight as we further enhance our capabilities, build scale and broaden our reach.”
“We are delighted to partner with Tom Latsos and the entire Airtech team,” said Robert Fogelson, Senior Partner at EagleTree. “Tom and his colleagues have built a market-leading industrial technology company. Building on the company’s existing momentum, we believe the next phase of Airtech’s growth will be very exciting.”
EagleTree, formerly Wasserstein Partners, invests in the media and communications, consumer products, and water and industrial sectors. The firm is headquartered in New York (www.eagletree.com).
“Occupying a unique position for custom-engineered products with highly-specialized designs that others do not provide, Airtech is well positioned to deliver solutions that address customer needs,” said Dr. Rengarajan Ramesh, Partner at EagleTree. “We are excited to work together to help expand the company’s presence within its existing segments and across the larger marketplace.”
TwinBrook served as sole lead arranger and administrative agent on the debt financing to support EagleTree’s buy of Airtech Vacuum. TwinBrook focuses on loans to private equity-owned companies with EBITDA between $3 million and $50 million, with an emphasis on companies with $25 million of EBITDA and below. The firm targets senior financing opportunities up to $200 million with hold sizes across the Twin Brook platform ranging from $25 million up to $100 million. Since inception in the fourth quarter of 2014, Twin Brook has closed 164 transactions and provided total arranged commitments of approximately $5.1 billion (www.twincp.com).
Co-investing in the equity with EagleTree on this transaction were Northwestern Mutual Capital, Nuveen Private Markets and Thrivent Financial.
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | March 5, 2018
