News

American Securities has acquired Houston-based Prince, a maker of mineral-based specialty additives, from Palladium Equity Partners. No financial terms were disclosed. Goldman Sachs provided financial advice to Prince on the deal.

PRESS RELEASE

HOUSTON and NEW YORK, March 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — The parent company of Prince International Corporation and Prince Erachem International Corporation (“Prince” or the “Company”), a leading manufacturer of mineral-based specialty additives, and American Securities LLC (“American Securities”), a leading private equity firm, announced today that Prince has been acquired by affiliates of American Securities. Since 2003, Prince has been majority owned by affiliates of Palladium Equity Partners, LLC (“Palladium”).

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Prince serves a diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets by developing, manufacturing and marketing performance-critical additives. Many of the Company’s products are custom developed for specific customer applications in a variety of industries, including construction, electronics, consumer products, agriculture, battery, automotive, oil & gas, and heavy equipment.

Under Palladium’s ownership, Prince has grown from a small, regional processor of minerals to become one of the largest global manufacturers of specialty mineral additives and inorganic chemicals. The Company is a proven consolidator, having closed 19 add-on acquisitions since 2003, and has built a multinational manufacturing presence with locations across six continents.

“Prince has grown into a preeminent specialty inorganic chemical manufacturing business across targeted industries based on customer support, technical expertise, and continual improvement of our facilities and capabilities,” noted Willson Ropp, Chairman and President of Prince. “Our ability to develop and manufacture niche industrial additives and chemicals is valued by our more than 2,000 customers worldwide. Palladium has served as an outstanding partner over the past 14 years, working with us step-by-step and facilitating the creation of our scaled, global platform. We look forward to working with American Securities, leveraging their significant industry expertise and investment experience to accelerate our business plan and growth.”

“We are pleased to partner with Willson and the rest of the Prince leadership team to continue to capture attractive growth opportunities,” commented Scott Wolff, a Managing Director of American Securities. “The Company’s highly-engineered products, valuable customer relationships, experienced leadership team, and engaged employee base make Prince a strong fit for our investment strategy.”

“We are very proud of the results that have been achieved at Prince,” said Adam Shebitz, Managing Director of Palladium. “Willson Ropp and Executive Vice President Anthony Weiss have been outstanding partners throughout our ownership period, and have grown the business into a truly world-class enterprise that we believe is well positioned for its next chapter of growth.”

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel to Prince, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to American Securities with respect to the transaction. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to the Company with respect to the transaction.

About Prince
Prince combines international sourcing and processing capabilities with in-depth customer knowledge, world-class engineering, and value-added distribution to deliver essential inorganic specialty chemicals to diverse consumer and industrial markets. Formed through a series of acquisitions since 2003, Prince’s products enjoy widespread use in brick, glass, foundries, steel, oil & gas, specialty coatings, agriculture, water treatment, and numerous other industrial applications. Prince operates 25 processing facilities located across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. For more information, visit www.princecorp.com.

About American Securities
Based in New York with an office in Shanghai, American Securities is a leading U.S. private equity firm that invests in market-leading North American companies with annual revenues generally ranging from $200 million to $2 billion and/or $50 million to $250 million of EBITDA. American Securities and its affiliates have approximately $23 billion under management. For more information, visit www.american-securities.com.

About Palladium Equity Partners, LLC
Palladium is a middle market private equity firm with approximately $3.0 billion of assets under management. The firm seeks to acquire and grow companies in partnership with founders and experienced management teams by providing capital, strategic guidance and operational oversight. Since its founding in 1997, Palladium has invested approximately $1.9 billion of capital in 30 platform investments and more than 100 add-on acquisitions. The firm focuses primarily on buyout equity investments in the range of $50 million to $150 million. The principals of the firm have significant experience in consumer, services, industrials, and healthcare businesses, with a special focus on companies they believe will benefit from the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population. Palladium is based in New York City. For more information, visit www.palladiumequity.com.