Nautic Partners has acquired LindFast Solutions Group, a master distributor of specialty fasteners, from Harbour Group.
LindFast sells its products to a base of national, regional, and local distribution customers through its metric (Lindstrom) and imperial (Stelfast) product brands. The company, led by CEO Neil Yeargin, was founded in 1983 by Virgil Lindstrom and is headquartered near Minneapolis in Blaine, MN (www.lindstromfasteners.com).
Harbour Group first invested in LindFast through its acquisition of Lindstrom, a master distributor of metric fasteners, in 2011. Add-on acquisitions followed this buy with the addition of Bossard Metrics in 2012, Titan Fastener Products in 2014, Anda Tool and Fastener in 2016, the packaged fastener business of Hodell-Natco Industries in 2017, and Stelfast in 2018.
“LindFast has a deep, experienced management team and a great culture across the organization. We are thrilled to partner with them to support the company’s organic growth and cross-selling initiatives, as well as to pursue selective acquisitions in LindFast’s fragmented market,” said Chris Pierce, a managing director of Nautic. “Additionally, we’re excited to again be investing in the fastener distribution industry following our previous investment in Endries International, which enabled us to have early conviction on the LindFast opportunity.”
Nautic acquired Endries International, a Brillion, WI-based distributor of fasteners and Class-C parts to industrial original equipment manufacturers, in June 2017 and sold the company in December 2018 to New York-based MSD Partners. MSD Partners was formed in 2009 by the principals of MSD Capital, a family office formed to manage the capital of Michael Dell and his family.
LindFast maintains a deep inventory of approximately 130,000 low volume, slow-moving SKUs that its distribution customers need quickly but are non-economical to inventory and source themselves. These SKUs represent high‐touch, specialty products that can be difficult to source due to their unique length, diameter, thread pitch, metal choice, or finish. LindFast also offers packaging, kitting, and fabrication services.
“LindFast is a leader in its market and provides a truly compelling value proposition to its distributor customers,” said Sean Wieland, a vice president of Nautic. “We believe the company has significant runway to continue to capitalize on its position of scale in the market to offer additional value-added services to the customer base, and we are excited to work with the management team on those efforts.”
Nautic Partners is a middle-market private equity firm that makes majority equity investments of $25 million to $75 million in companies that are active in the healthcare, industrial products, and outsourced services sectors. In March 2019, the firm held a final closing of Nautic Partners IX LP at its hard cap with $1.5 billion of limited partner commitments. The new fund was oversubscribed and received support from both existing and new institutional investors. Nautic is headquartered in Providence, RI (www.nautic.com).
Ally Financial and GSO Capital Partners provided the financing for the transaction. BB&T Capital Markets was the financial advisor to LindFast.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | April 9, 2019
Genstar Capital has sold its portfolio company MW Industries, a provider of springs, specialty fasteners and other precision components, to American Securities.
“Genstar has greatly enjoyed partnering with the MW team in transforming its business,” said Rob Rutledge, Managing Director of Genstar. “During our ownership, we meaningfully increased the scale of MW’s leadership team, supported the implementation of the OneMW Operating System, and through acquisitions expanded the company’s product portfolio and end markets, all of which contributed to a doubling of revenue. Importantly, MW is strongly positioned for continued growth to further support its customers and the market’s needs.”
Genstar invests from $50 million to $400 million in middle-market companies that have enterprise values from $50 million to $1 billion and EBITDAs greater than $15 million. The firm targets investments in the financial services, software, industrial technology, and healthcare industries. Genstar was founded in 1988 and is based in San Francisco (
American Securities invests in businesses with $200 million to $2 billion of revenue and $50 million to $200 million of EBITDA. Sectors of interest include industrial manufacturing, specialty chemicals, aerospace and defense, energy, business services, healthcare, media, restaurants, and consumer products. The firm has more than $15 billion of capital under management and has offices in New York and Shanghai (
