IGP Sells Controls Southeast to Ametek

Industrial Growth Partners has sold Controls Southeast to Ametek. The transaction closed Aug. 2. Financial terms weren’t announced. Pineville, N.C.-based CSI provides thermal maintenance products and solutions for industrial processes.

PRESS RELEASE
San Francisco, CA – Industrial Growth Partners is pleased to announce the sale of Controls Southeast, Inc. (“CSI”) to AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE: AME) in a transaction that closed on August 2, 2013. 

CSI, headquartered in Pineville, North Carolina, is a global leader in steam system technology providing proprietary thermal maintenance products and solutions for demanding industrial processes. CSI primarily provides proprietary bolt-on heating systems for piping, tanks, valves and instrumentation, as well as jacketed piping systems and full-service system engineering and design, field consulting and installation support. CSI’s products address a targeted range of applications in the global oil refining, natural gas processing, petrochemical, chemical and other process industries. These applications include heat transfer and critical temperature maintenance in sulfur units, cokers and asphalt units, and other petrochemical processes where high temperatures are utilized within a narrow band of acceptable temperature deviation.

Original Acquisition Details

IGP, in partnership with CSI’s existing shareholders and members of its management team, purchased a controlling interest in the Company on June 30, 2010. The transaction created a solid platform for CSI to accelerate its domestic and international growth, introduce new products and enhance its selling capabilities. During IGP’s ownership, the Company increased its international revenue by a factor of five, significantly strengthened its senior leadership team, more than doubled its direct sales force and global representative network, established production capabilities in the Middle East and launched several new proprietary products and services.

Fred Stubblefield, III, President of CSI, commented:

“IGP’s support of CSI as we transitioned from a family-owned business to an institutionally-backed enterprise was essential.  They were an ideal partner as we went through the process of expanding aggressively overseas, particularly in the Middle East, and also in supporting new product initiatives. Ultimately, these actions enabled us to further solidify our status as a global technology leader in our industry, accelerate expansion into underpenetrated market segments and geographies, and position the business to capitalize on the large, growing global market opportunity.”

IGP, founded in 1997, is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with $1.4 billion of equity capital raised since inception. The firm invests exclusively in middle-market companies in the manufacturing sector in partnership with management.