MPE Partners has made an investment in family-owned LA-CO Industries, a manufacturer and supplier of specialty chemicals and industrial marking products.
LA-CO’s product line includes industrial hand-held markers, temperature indicating tools, sterilization inks, plumbing chemicals, and livestock identification products that are used in a range of applications in the plumbing, HVAC, electrical, construction and agriculture sectors.
LA-CO’s products go to market under the LA-CO, Markal, Tempil, Tempilinks, and All-Weather brands, and are sold through industrial distributors and e-commerce channels.
LA-CO was founded in 1934 by Dr. Lester Aronberg, a chemist, who invented the Stick-O-Paint brand of industrial markers. Today, the company has more than 200 employees and is headquartered near Chicago in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, with an additional manufacturing facility near Lyon in Blyes, France.
MPE partnered on the transaction with CEO Benjamin Kleiman, the great-grandson of Dr. Aronberg. His grandfather, Charles Kleiman, and his father, Dan Kleiman, have also been part of the company’s leadership, making Benjamin part of the fourth generation to lead the family-owned business.
“I am incredibly excited for the future of LA-CO Industries with the investment of MPE, a strong partner that closely aligns with our vision for growth and greater success,” said Mr. Kleiman. “The partnership recognizes LA-CO’s 90 years of industry-leading achievements as the foundation for development of new products and opportunities for growth across the globe to take the company into a new era of success.”
“We are looking forward to partnering with Benjamin and the rest of the management team to pursue an aggressive organic growth strategy as well as to execute and integrate complementary add-on acquisitions, maintaining the strong culture and commitment to its customers that has made LA-CO so successful,” said Brendan Newman, a vice president at MPE.
“We are thrilled about our investment in LA-CO Industries and partnership with Benjamin and the rest of the management team,” said Graham Schena, a partner at MPE. “Since its founding over 90 years ago, the company has established a market leading position driven by its wide breadth of high-quality, performance-based products all while delivering premier customer service.”
Cleveland and Boston-based MPE invests in lower middle-market companies that are valued at up to $250 million and have EBITDA of at least $5 million. Sectors of interest include high-value manufacturing and commercial and industrial services.
Fidelity Direct Lending and Apogem Capital and provided financing to support the transaction.
Fidelity Direct Lending is based in Chicago and is led by Head of Direct Lending David Gaito along with Managing Directors Therese Icuss and Jeffrey Scott. The group is a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, one of the largest financial services corporations in the world.
Apogem was formed in April 2022 as a new brand to combine the operations of GoldPoint Partners, Madison Capital Funding, and PA Capital (previously these three groups operated under the New York Life Investments Alternatives brand). Today, New York City-headquartered Apogem is led by CEO Christopher Taylor and has more than $37 billion of assets under management.
Grace Matthews was the financial advisor to LA-CO on this transaction.
© 2024 Private Equity Professional | July 25, 2024
