Arcline Investment Management has acquired Pride Engineering from May River Capital. Arcline intends to use Pride Engineering as a platform to acquire other specialty tooling companies across a range of industries.
Pride Engineering designs and manufactures tooling, equipment, and aftermarket parts that are used in the aluminum beverage packaging manufacturing process. The company’s products include can body-forming tool packs, can bottom formers and precision grinders.
Pride recently introduced Pride Synapse, a new product line that uses sensor-driven analytics to monitor, adjust and report, in real-time, can line data drawn from multiple sources. The company is led by CEO Greg Pickert and is headquartered in Minneapolis (www.pridecan.com).
“Arcline’s experience in software and technology enablement will be a great asset as we further develop the next generation of connected tooling for our customers,” said Mr. Pickert. “We look forward to playing a key role in the sustainable packaging industry as we invest in our next phase of growth.”
“We are in the early innings of a once-in-a-generation shift in the packaging industry – the large-scale substitution of single-use plastic containers toward more sustainable aluminum containers,” said a representative of Arcline in a released statement. “We are committed to supporting the anticipated volume growth of Pride’s customers by heavily investing in the company’s engineering and technology capabilities. Specifically, we plan to work with Pride to accelerate the rollout of its newest product, Synapse, that uses sensor-driven analytics to drive step-change quality and productivity improvements in our industry.”
Arcline makes control investments in companies that have from $10 million to $100 million of EBITDA and enterprise values of up to $1 billion. Sectors of interest include industrials, technology, life sciences, and specialty chemicals. The firm closed its first fund, Arcline Capital Partners LP, with $1.5 billion of committed capital in March 2019. Arcline was founded in September 2018 and has offices in San Francisco and New York (www.arcline.com).
May River, the seller of Pride, invests from $15 million to $40 million of equity in companies with enterprise values of $15 million to $75 million. Sectors of interest include precision manufacturing, engineered products, specialized industrial services, and value-added industrial distribution. May River was founded in February 2012 and closed its inaugural fund, May River Fund I LP, in March 2017 with total commitments of $170 million. The firm is based in Chicago (www.mayrivercapital.com).
May River acquired Pride Engineering in partnership with management and other co-investors in March 2014.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | August 7, 2019
