Castle Harlan has formed Titan Production Equipment to acquire the North American production equipment manufacturing assets of publicly-traded Exterran Corporation.
Upon closing of the transaction, expected during the third quarter of 2018, Titan will be a designer and manufacturer of equipment that is used to separate, process and treat hydrocarbon (oil and natural gas) streams at the wellhead, gathering and processing stages of production. The business specializes in custom and made-to-order products, including two- and three-phase separators (used to remove and collect liquids from natural gas) as well as glycol dehydrators (used to remove water vapor from natural gas streams to prevent corrosion in pipelines). 
The acquired assets include Exterran’s 210,000 square foot manufacturing facility located west of Houston in Columbus, TX and the company’s portfolio of production equipment engineering drawings and designs. As part of the transaction, Titan Production Equipment will become Exterran’s preferred supplier of production equipment throughout the US and Canada. The website of Exterran’s production equipment manufacturing business can be accessed HERE.
The current managers of the business will be investors in Titan and will operate the company post-closing. Chris Werner, who was a former officer of Exterran and formerly the SVP of Global Operations & CEO of Exterran Italy, will become the Chief Executive Officer of Titan.
Castle Harlan has a past relationship with Exterran. In 1998 Castle Harlan acquired Universal Compression, a provider of natural gas compression equipment and services, from Tidewater. In 2000 Universal completed an IPO and in 2007 it merged with publicly-traded Hanover Compressor Company to form Exterran.
“The production equipment market currently faces constrained capacity, in which customers experience long lead-times, limited engineering support and product quality issues,” said Eric Schwartz, a Managing Director of Castle Harlan. “We are excited to partner with Chris Werner and the rest of the Titan management team to address these challenges as a market leader in the industry with a completely dedicated focus on the design, engineering and manufacturing of high-quality production equipment.”
Castle Harlan makes control investments in middle-market companies in North America, Europe and Australia. The firm has raised eight private equity funds – five in the United States and three in Australia -totaling more than $6 billion in capital commitments. Castle Harlan was founded in 1987 and is based in New York (www.castleharlan.com).
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | April 20, 2018
Stellex Capital Management has partnered with a group of automotive industry veterans to acquire publicly-traded Fenix Parts.
“We are thrilled to be investing in this space and to have the opportunity to work with such an experienced operating team,” said Michael Stewart, a Managing Partner at Stellex. “This is a great fit for us given our extensive experience investing across the automotive supply chain.”
Stellex invests from $25 million to $100 million per transaction in companies experiencing some form of financial, operational or industry-driven distress. Target companies will typically have an enterprise value of $50 million to $500 million and will be located in the United States or Europe. Sectors of interest include automotive, aerospace, building products, defense, industrial equipment, metal fabrication and transportation. Stellex has offices in New York and London (
Angeles Equity has added two new team members with the hirings of Martin Mumford as an operating partner and Jarret Rutstein as an associate.
Prior to joining Angeles Equity, Mr. Mumford was a Principal in the Consumer, Industrials, and Services group at management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Mr. Mumford served as an Infantry Officer in the US Army, where he held a number of leadership roles with the 101st Airborne Division. He has an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in International Relations from Stanford University.
Before joining Angeles Equity, Mr. Rutstein was as a Private Equity Associate at Alvarez & Marsal Capital Partners where he was responsible for evaluating, executing, and managing control-oriented investments across multiple industries. Earlier in his career he was an Investment Banking Analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He has a Master of Finance degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA in Political Economy from Tulane University.
Simplify Compliance, a portfolio company of Leeds Equity Partners, has acquired Bluepoint Leadership Development, a provider of leadership training and content. The buy of Bluepoint is the fourth acquisition completed by Simplify Compliance since its formation in 2016.
“The addition of Bluepoint’s capabilities will enhance our learning offerings and help our customers become more efficient and effective,” said Scott VanHoy, Managing Director of Leeds Equity Partners
Leeds Equity Partners is focused exclusively on investing in the education, training and information services industries. The firm was founded by Jeffrey Leeds and Robert Bernstein in 1993 and has raised and managed more than $1.5 billion of capital across six funds. The firm is located in New York (
Consilio is a provider of eDiscovery and document review services with an emphasis on litigation, antitrust, and internal and regulatory investigations. The company is 
headquartered in Washington, DC and has 24 worldwide locations (
“This is an exciting and significant step for Consilio and Advanced Discovery to enhance our market leadership position as a global technology platform that will better serve our clients, offering them a broad suite of innovative solutions,” said Andy Macdonald, CEO of Consilio, who will continue as CEO of the combined company. “We are extremely pleased to partner with GI Partners, a firm that shares our guiding principles for delivering quality service to clients. We share an ongoing commitment to growing the combined company, both organically and through select acquisitions. We look forward to expanding our range of product technologies to support our growing customer needs anywhere in the world.”
GI Partners makes control equity investments in companies with enterprise values of $250 million to $1 billion that are active in the IT infrastructure, healthcare, software, and services sectors. In November 2017, the firm held a final closing of GI Partners Fund V LP at an oversubscribed and hard cap of $2.8 billion. The combination of Consilio and Advanced Discovery is the fourth platform investment for this fund. GI Partners was founded in 2001 and is based in San Francisco (
“We are pleased to be able to acquire and combine both businesses,” said Hoon Cho, Managing Director at GI Partners. “Consilio and Advanced Discovery have complementary global operations and strong cultural fit. GI Partners’ successful history of investing in leading technology businesses will allow us to provide the tools and resources needed to support Andy and his team in driving accelerated growth.”
