AmeriCast Technologies acquires Atlas Castings

RP news wires, Noria Corporation

Castle Harlan, a New York-based private equity investment firm, announced April 9 that its portfolio company, AmeriCast Technologies, a leader in the design and manufacture of large, complex steel castings primarily for the heavy construction, mining and rail industries, has completed the acquisition Atlas Castings and Technology, a leader in the manufacture of specialty steel castings for the energy and defense industries.

The combined company will have annual revenues in excess of $300 million.

AmeriCast, based in Atchison, Kan., makes highly engineered steel castings, some weighing more than 60,000 pounds. Its customers include Caterpillar, Electro-Motive Diesel and General Electric. It had revenues in calendar 2006 of $206 million, an increase of 11 percent from the previous year.

Atlas is based in Tacoma, Wash., and has metal-casting and machining facilities there and in Chehalis, Wash. It produces castings of up to 40,000 pounds, primarily for the oil and gas industry and for nuclear and fossil-fuel power generation, as well as for the U.S. Navy. Its revenues for calendar 2006 were $89 million, an increase of 6 percent from 2005.

Howard Morgan, senior managing director at Castle Harlan, and Erica Tsai, Castle Harlan associate, who lead the firm's negotiating team, said in a statement: "Atlas has a clear leadership position in its industries and possesses outstanding technical capabilities. The merger of these two companies gives the combined business a strong strategic balance of industries and customers."

Castle Harlan, along with management and Bradken Operations Pty. Ltd., an Australian steel products manufacturer, had purchased AmeriCast last November in a transaction valued at $110 million. Bradken is a former portfolio company of Castle Harlan's Australian affiliate, CHAMP Private Equity.

Castle Harlan, Bradken, and members of the senior management of both AmeriCast and Atlas invested in AmeriCast's acquisition of Atlas. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.