fleet services

Safe Fleet, a portfolio company of The Sterling Group, has acquired MobileView from Interlogix, a unit of United Technologies. The buy of MobileView is Safe Fleet’s tenth acquisition during Sterling’s ownership and its sixth acquisition in the video and telematics sector.

MobileView is a provider of mobile surveillance and video management services to more than 35,000 transit, bus and rail vehicles in the United States. The company’s products are used by transit and law enforcement agencies to capture, record, analyze, and control video in order to enhance security and increase vehicle uptime (www.mobileviewvideo.com).

Safe Fleet was formed in October 2013 when Sterling acquired R•O•M Corporation (ROM) and Specialty Manufacturing (SMI). Both ROM and SMI were portfolio companies of Century Park Capital Partners. Today, Safe Fleet owns a portfolio of brands that are used in the emergency services, bus and rail, recreational vehicle, truck and trailer, work truck, industrial and military markets. The company has approximately 1,100 employees and 10 manufacturing locations. Safe Fleet is headquartered south of Kansas City in Belton, MO (www.safefleet.net).

“MobileView’s solutions are best-in-class servicing a significant number of transit agencies in North America,” said John Knox, CEO of Safe Fleet. “We believe the addition of MobileView to Safe Fleet’s leading video positions in school and transit bus, fire, law enforcement, waste, and commercial markets extends Safe Fleet’s position as the largest global provider of video solutions to the fleet market.”

“Sterling and Safe Fleet management have partnered together to build a winning business in Safe Fleet,” said Brian Henry, Partner at The Sterling Group.  “Through a series of organic initiatives and a wide variety of acquisitions, we have built a business that better serves customers.”

The Sterling Group invests in manufacturing, industrial services and distribution companies that have enterprise values from $100 million to $750 million.  The firm emphasizes an operational approach in partnership with management teams to grow and improve the companies it acquires.  Sterling was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Houston (www.sterling-group.com).

© 2017 Private Equity Professional | December 12, 2017

G.W. Anglin Manufacturing (GWA), a portfolio company of Banyan Capital and Carpedia Capital, has acquired Amtech, a commercial fleet upfitting business headquartered in Quebec.  Banyan and Carpedia acquired G.W. Anglin Manufacturing in November 2011 in partnership with the company’s President and CEO, Loris Boschin.

“We are delighted to augment GWA’s existing Quebec operations with such a respected industry player as Amtech, which is recognized throughout Quebec for the quality of its products and customer service.  This transaction marks a significant milestone for GWA in execution of its strategic plan to become Canada’s leading commercial fleet upfitter”, said Mr. Boschin.

GWA, with annual revenues of approximately $12 million, upfitts large commercial fleets with additional equipment to meet the needs of natural gas utilities, electrical utilities and telecommunication companies.  GWA’s upfitting services include drawer units, safety partitions, aluminum ladder racks, cabinetry, trailer tow systems, safety lighting, beacons, spotlights, generators, and tool boxes among many others.  As one of Canada’s few vertically integrated commercial vehicle upfitters, GWA designs, manufactures and installs a majority of the product it integrates into vehicles.  The company is headquartered near Windsor in Tecumseh, ON (www.gwanglin.com).

Carpedia Capital is the investing arm of operations improvement consulting firm Carpedia International.  The firm invests in Canadian-based companies that have C$2 million to C$4 million of EBITDA and have enterprise valuations of C$8 million to C$20 million. Sectors of interest include manufacturing, food production and processing, distribution, logistics, consumer and business services, financial services, medical imaging and testing laboratories, project management, engineering & design, hospitality, and retailing. Carpedia Capital is headquartered in Toronto (www.carpediacapital.com).

Banyan Capital Partners is a Canadian-based private equity firm that invests in private and public middle-market companies located in North America that have annual revenues between $10 million and $200 million.  Banyan is part of the Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group, an asset management company with over $60 billion of assets under management. The firm is headquartered in Toronto (www.banyancapitalpartners.com).

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 9-16-15