Blackstone Forges Add-On for Axle Co. –

The Blackstone Group last month agreed to acquire steel forging company Colfor Manufacturing to add to its automobile axle platform American Axle & Manufacturing, which Blackstone took public in January. The transaction value will be between $160 million and $170 million, said Bret Pearlman, a managing director at Blackstone, though he declined to discuss financing for the deal.

At press time, Blackstone also had reportedly lost a bid to buy the auto parts unit of United Technologies Corp.

In 1997, Blackstone committed $113 million in equity toward a recapitalization of American Axle. The company this year entered the New York Stock exchange at $16.50 a share and as of press time traded at $12.44 a share. Blackstone remains a majority shareholder in American Axle.

American Axle, based in Detroit, had revenue of approximately $2 billion in 1998. It supplies axle rods to General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. Blackstone expects Colfor to have 1999 revenue of $125 million.

Mr. Pearlman declined to comment on a possible exit from American Axle, but said the firm has not sold any of its shares.

Blackstone also reportedly sought to buy UT Automotive, a division of United Technologies that produces instrument panels and electrical parts, for $2.25 billion. The investment would have represented one of the largest ever for Blackstone. But an explicit article about the negotiations in the Financial Times last week reportedly so angered UT Automotive executives that they re-opened the auction and sold to Lear Corp., an automotive interior company, for $50 million more than Blackstone’s bid. Goldman, Sachs & Co. is acting as adviser to UT Automotive. Partners at Blackstone did not return calls.