Announces Formation of Alliance
New York, NY (June 4, 2012) – KPS Capital Partners, LP (“KPS”) today announced that its portfolio company International Equipment Solutions, LLC ("IES”) has acquired, through an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary, Siac do Brasil Ltda. (“Siac do Brasil” or the “Company”) from SIAC S.p.A. (“SIAC”) and its affiliates. IES and SIAC also announced an alliance agreement whereby the parties would cooperate in the future. This is the third acquisition by IES since its formation. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
KPS formed IES in September 2011 as a platform for investments serving the construction, agriculture, landscaping, infrastructure, recycling, demolition, mining, and energy industries. At that time, KPS also announced IES’s first two acquisitions, Paladin Brands Holding, Inc. and Crenlo LLC from Dover Corporation. In November 2011, Mr. Stephen Andrews was retained as Chief Executive Officer of IES to lead the integration of IES’ first two acquisitions and to aggressively grow and globalize the company.
Siac do Brasil is the leading manufacturer of cab enclosures in Brazil. The Company also manufactures locomotive cabs as well as complex fabrications for off-highway machinery, and its customers include the world’s leading original equipment manufacturers involved in the construction, infrastructure, mining, forestry and agriculture industries. SIAC is one of the largest global manufacturers of cab enclosures, with operations in Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia, Brazil and India.
Raquel Palmer, a Partner at KPS, said, “The launch of IES has exceeded all of our expectations. In a brief nine months, we have created the leading independent engineered equipment company in the Western Hemisphere, completing three highly synergistic acquisitions and successfully transforming a purely U.S. company into a global competitor. We are very excited about cooperating with SIAC. Together our companies will provide our customers with global manufacturing and service solutions. We look forward to continuing to aggressively grow IES through acquisitions around the world.”
Steve Andrews, Chief Executive Officer of IES, said, “The acquisition of Siac do Brasil is a critical strategic step in the growth and globalization of IES. We are very impressed with the Company’s rapid growth trajectory, customer base, quality and technical capabilities. The acquisition not only expands many of our current North American OEM supply partnerships into the Brazilian market, but further broadens our customer base as well. Additionally, the acquisition introduces IES as an important supplier in the rapidly growing Brazilian locomotive market. As demonstrated with this acquisition, IES will continue our commitment toward supporting our customer’s global expansion initiatives with localized supply, technical resources and parts and service support. IES intends to invest significant additional capital and resources into Siac do Brasil to ensure the highest level of production quality for our customers and to increase capacity not only for cabs, but to support the growth of IES’ attachment tools product lines in South America as well. IES has made tremendous progress in our first nine months and I believe our future is very bright.”
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP and Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados served as legal counsel to KPS and IES and its affiliates. Financing for the transaction was provided by a syndicate of institutional investors agented by Regiment Capital Advisors, LP and PNC Bank, National Association.
Emanuele Cortesi and Matteo Ghilatdi of Caffi-Maroncelli & Associati and De Luca Joao and Luis Rouz of DeLuca Derenusson, Schuttoff e Azevedo Advogados served as legal counsel to Siac S.p.A and Siac do Brasil.
About International Equipment Solutions, LLC
IES is a global engineered equipment platform serving the construction, agriculture, landscaping, infrastructure, recycling, demolition, mining, and energy markets. IES operates through six operating units, including Paladin, Genesis, Pengo and Jewell, all of whom are leading manufacturers of engineered attachment tools for operator driven equipment, Crenlo, a leading North American manufacturer of cab enclosures for operator-driven equipment as well as specialty electronic enclosures, and Siac do Brasil, the leading supplier of heavy equipment cab enclosures and locomotive sub-assemblies in the South American market. IES’ customers include major OEMs, national rental fleet companies and hundreds of independent and OEM-aligned dealers. IES employs over 2,500 people and operates 15 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, and Brazil.
About SIAC S.p.A.
Founded in 1966 and headquartered in Bergamo, Italy, SIAC S.p.A. is one of the largest global manufacturers of cab enclosures. In particular, SIAC S.p.A. specializes in the design and manufacture of driver units, complete cabs and components for earth moving and agricultural machinery and equipment. SIAC S.p.A. serves many of the world’s leading original equipment manufacturers through operations based in Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia, Brazil and India. Leading manufacturers worldwide rely on SIAC as a global, strategic partner capable of meeting their needs in terms of innovation, reliability, and quality.
About KPS Capital Partners
KPS, through its affiliated management entities, is the manager of the KPS Special Situations Funds, a family of investment funds with approximately $21.4 billion of assets under management (as of December 31, 2023). For over three decades, the Partners of KPS have worked exclusively to realize significant capital appreciation by making controlling equity investments in manufacturing and industrial companies across a diverse array of industries, including basic materials, branded consumer, healthcare and luxury products, automotive parts, capital equipment and general manufacturing. KPS creates value for its investors by working constructively with talented management teams to make businesses better, and generates investment returns by structurally improving the strategic position, competitiveness and profitability of its portfolio companies, rather than primarily relying on financial leverage. The KPS Funds’ portfolio companies generate aggregate annual revenues of approximately $20.3 billion, operate 222 manufacturing facilities in 26 countries, and have approximately 48,000 employees, directly and through joint ventures worldwide (as of December 31, 2023). The KPS investment strategy and portfolio companies are described in detail at www.kpsfund.com.
