Windjammer Capital Investors (“Windjammer”) is pleased to announce its acquisition of Engineered Controls International, LLC (“ECI” or the “Company”), a leading global provider of mission critical, highly engineered flow control products used in the transportation, delivery, and storage of liquefied petroleum gas (“LPG”), liquefied natural gas (“LNG”), and industrial gases. Windjammer partnered with CITIC Capital Partners (“CITIC”) and ECI’s management team to acquire the business from Sentinel Capital Partners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Elon, North Carolina, ECI designs and manufactures a comprehensive range of flow control valves and regulators that are sold to domestic and international markets under the RegO and Goddard brand names. As a market leader, ECI meets the demands of customers across the Americas, Europe, and Asia by offering products synonymous with trust and reliability as a consequence of their consistent quality and performance.
Thom Farrell, President & CEO of ECI, commented, “We are excited to be partnering with Windjammer and CITIC to help the company achieve its growth opportunities, including acquisitions and significant expansion in China as the company continues to support the emerging growth in LNG and industrial gases throughout the world.”
“ECI represents a very attractive investment opportunity for Windjammer as the company meets virtually all of the characteristics that we seek in new platform companies,” said Costa Littas, Managing Principal of Windjammer, “including a market leading position in its core products and markets; a mission-critical, safety-related product offering; a proven customer value proposition; a solid financial profile, characterized by consistent performance and attractive growth opportunities; and a strong management team. We are very pleased to add ECI to the Windjammer portfolio.”
John Donahue, Managing Director of Windjammer, added, “ECI is well positioned to capitalize on the emerging growth opportunities in the US, China and throughout the rest of the world as shale gas discoveries, a renewed focus on clean energy and pollution control are spurring investments in natural gas, including the build-out of LNG transportation infrastructure and vehicles. We and CITIC are excited to be partnering with management to help ECI continue its strong track record of profitable growth.”
Robert W. Baird & Co. advised Sentinel Capital Partners in its sale of ECI. Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP provided legal counsel to Windjammer.
Costa Littas, John Donahue, Craig Majernik, Caleb Clark, Graham Schena and Spencer Allen worked on the transaction for Windjammer. John Donahue can be reached at 781-530-9161 or jdonahue@windjammercapital.com for more information.
About Windjammer
Windjammer Capital is a national private equity investment firm, based in Newport Beach, CA and Waltham, MA that invests control equity in middle‐market businesses and in partnership with management. Windjammer manages over $2 billion of committed capital with respect to its control equity investment strategy, and since its founding in 1990, has completed over 50 platform acquisitions and over 100 strategic add‐ons. The firm targets investments in companies that are leaders in attractive niche markets and share several of the following characteristics: significant and defensible market positions; differentiated products and services; strong management teams; scalable business models; identifiable growth opportunities; and consistent financial performance.
ABOUT CITIC CAPITAL PARTNERS
CITIC Capital Partners is a leading China-based private equity firm managing US$2.8 billion of committed capital from over 60 global institutional investors with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, and New York. CITIC Capital’s dedicated international fund invests globally in companies which have a China angle and leverages CITIC Capital's extensive China resources to help companies realize their full potential in China. CITIC Capital focuses on industrial and consumer businesses that have leading technology, brands and products. More Information on CITIC Capital can be found at www.citiccapital.com.