Anvil International, a portfolio company of One Equity Partners, has agreed to merge with Smith-Cooper International, a portfolio company of Tailwind Capital.
The combination of Smith-Cooper and Anvil will be majority owned by Tailwind Capital. Tailwind acquired Smith-Cooper from Blue Point Capital Partners in November 2017 and One Equity Partners acquired Anvil from publicly-traded Mueller Water Products (NYSE: MWA) in January 2017.
Anvil is a manufacturer of pipe fittings, couplings, pipe hangers and piping support systems. The company’s products are used in a range of applications, from plumbing and mechanical, HVAC, industrial and fire protection, to mining and oil and gas. Company-owned brand names include AFCON, JBS, Anvil-Strut, SprinkFLEX, SPF/Anvil, Catawissa, Gruvlok, Beck, Merit, FlexHead, Basic-PSA, North Alabama Pipe, Anvil EPS and Megawatt.
Anvil, led by CEO Tom Fish, is headquartered in Exeter, NH with manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania (3), Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and Rhode Island (www.anvilintl.com).
Smith-Cooper is a designer, producer, importer and distributor of pipe, valves and fittings to the commercial and industrial, energy, chemical and petrochemical refining, and fire protection markets. The company has 3,000 global customers and more than 17,000 SKUs sold under three brands: SCI – valves and fittings made of steel, iron, brass, bronze, and stainless steel; Sharpe – carbon and stainless steel valves used to control the flow of various media in piping systems; and FPPI – fire protection accessory products. Smith-Cooper, led by CEO Jason Hild, was founded in 1993 and is headquartered near Los Angeles in Commerce, CA (www.smithcooper.com).
At closing of this transaction, Mr. Hild will serve as the chief executive officer of the combined company, and Mr. Fish will serve as chairman of the board of directors. All other members of Anvil’s and Smith-Cooper’s senior management teams will remain with the combined company.
“This transaction combines two phenomenal businesses and management teams to create a world-class platform that can comprehensively serve the pipe, valves and fittings market,” said Jeff Calhoun, a partner at Tailwind. “We look forward to supporting Jason, Tom and the entire leadership team as they continue to pursue strategic growth opportunities.”
“Bringing together Anvil and Smith-Cooper is a unique opportunity to significantly expand the strong and complementary capabilities of both organizations,” said Mr. Hild. “Anvil’s commitment to domestic manufacturing and deep relationships with their distributor partners make them an excellent complement to Smith-Cooper, with our expertise in global sourcing and our ability to strongly service our customers. We are excited to work collaboratively with the talented Anvil team to create a bright future for our combined business.”
Tailwind invests from $25 million to $100 million of equity in middle-market companies that have enterprise values of up to $300 million and EBITDA from $10 million to $30 million. Sectors of interest include healthcare, business services and industrial services. Since its founding in 2003, Tailwind and its portfolio companies have completed over 95 acquisitions. The firm currently manages over $3.6 billion of committed equity capital and is based in New York (www.tailwind.com).
One Equity Partners is a middle-market private equity firm that invests in industrial, healthcare, and technology companies that are based in North America and Europe. The firm, founded in 2001, spun out of JP Morgan in 2015 and has offices in New York, Chicago and Frankfurt (www.oneequity.com).
JP Morgan and BlackArch Partners were the financial advisors to Anvil. Barclays was the financial advisor to Smith-Cooper.
This transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | April 29, 2019