MILWAUKEE (March 5, 2014) – Grace Matthews, Inc. and Superior Capital Partners announced today that Edge Adhesives has been acquired by a buyer group led by Gladstone Investment Corporation and Akoya Capital Partners. The company will continue to be led by the current executive management team. Grace Matthews advised Superior Capital and Edge Adhesives on the transaction.
Edge Adhesives, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a leader in butyl and block co-polymer technologies. Edge provides its diverse customer base with extruded butyl tapes, butyl and block co-polymer pressure sensitive adhesive tapes, and a variety of other sealant and adhesive products.
“We spoke to Superior prior to its original acquisition of Edge Adhesives (then Q’So, Inc.) back in 2010. When they recently asked us to help them manage the sale of the business, we were impressed by how well they had been able to execute on their original investment thesis. With a rapidly growing bottom line, the key in successfully marketing Edge was to find someone that fully understood, appreciated and valued the company’s current technology and capabilities, as well as its future targeted growth opportunities. Having had discussions with many of the best possible strategic and private equity buyers for this business, we are confident that we found the right partner for the sellers and the management team,” said Ben Scharff, Managing Director at Grace Matthews.
“The company is at an exciting crossroads,” commented Dave Burger, Edge CEO. “On the tail end of integrating 4 businesses, and being faced with substantial growth initiatives, finding the ideal partner was of critical importance to Edge’s management team. I want to thank Grace Matthews for their efforts in giving us the options and ability to not only maximize value in this sale, but to set the business up for even greater value creation going forward. Gladstone and Akoya brought with them some significant industry expertise and resources that will help us to take this business to the next level.”
Scott Hauncher, Managing Director at Superior Capital, stated: “The sale of Edge represented Superior’s first full exit, so it was critical that we did it right. Grace Matthews is well established with deep experience in the specialty chemical industry and ran an effective and efficient process that gave us many options and generated a very strong result for us and our investors. Their advice and professionalism was appreciated throughout the process. We are confident that the new owners will continue to grow and invest in Edge and enjoy the same success that we did under our prior ownership.”
ABOUT EDGE ADHESIVES
Edge is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, with additional production facilities in Elkhart, Indiana and Grove City, Ohio. The Company is a leading manufacturer of rubber-based adhesive sealing products with extensive capabilities in butyl and block copolymer technologies. Its products come in many forms including butyl tape gaskets, pumpable cartridge sealants, hot melt applied gaskets, and pressure sensitive adhesive tapes. Edge also has capabilities in MS Polymer sealants, as well as both water and solvent-borne sealants and coatings. For more information, visit www.edgeadhesives.com.
ABOUT SUPERIOR CAPITAL
Superior Capital, headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, is a private equity firm focused on making control investments in middle market special situations opportunities. The Fund’s investments include acquisitions of under-performing or capital constrained companies, restructurings, companies requiring new leadership, corporate carve-outs, bankruptcies and bank debt purchases. As a special situations fund, Superior combines capital, transaction experience and operational improvement expertise with proven management teams who have the vision, capability and commitment to successfully improve and grow their businesses. Superior seeks to acquire or recapitalize niche manufacturers, value-added distributors and specialty service companies. Generally, these companies will have annual revenue of $10 to $150 million, identifiable growth opportunities and the need for capital and resources to implement a growth and recovery plan. For more information, visit: www.superiorfund.com.
ABOUT GRACE MATTHEWS
Grace Matthews, Inc., a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based investment bank, provides merger, acquisition and corporate finance advisory services to private and public companies. Grace Matthews’ chemical practice is known globally for completing successful chemical industry transactions dating back to the early 1990s. Grace Matthews’ principals have completed over 100 transactions involving global corporations such as Akzo Nobel, 3M, DuPont, Sherwin-Williams, PPG Industries, Ashland, Ceradyne, DSM, ICI, Borregaard, Air Products, Landec Corporation, The Home Depot, Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Atofina Chemicals, Brush Engineered Materials, Becker Industrial Coatings, RPM International, Courtaulds, Domino Sugar, and Chr. Hansen Laboratories. For more detailed information on Grace Matthews, Inc., visit www.gracematthews.com.
CONTACT
Ben Scharff, Managing Director
414-278-1120
bscharff@gracematthews.com
Grace Matthews’ goal is to help business owners, corporate managers, and other stakeholders unlock the value of their businesses by employing strategies that maximize value and achieve other business objectives.