Denver private equity firm KRG Capital Partners had a busy Monday, announcing the sale of one company and the purchase of another.
KRG sold Wilmington, Mass.-based Accellent Inc., a provider of manufacturing and design services to medical- device makers, for $1.27 billion. It owned the company with DLJ Merchant Banking Partners.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York-based leveraged-buyout firm, was the buyer.
Leveraged-buyout firms, including KRG, use borrowed money to acquire companies, often using the company’s own assets as collateral.
Also Monday, KRG purchased East Coast Fire Protection Inc., the nation’s seventh-largest fire-safety service provider. It’s based in Richmond, Va., and has $66 million in annual sales, according to one published report.
Privately held KRG declined to disclose the deal’s price.
KRG considers East Coast Fire Protection a “platform” company, defined as a company poised to purchase smaller “add-on” companies with the intent of raising the value of each. East Coast’s services include heat, gas and smoke detection systems, fire hoses and extinguishers, and sprinkler systems.
KRG, which owns 13 companies, has said it’s looking to acquire businesses in energy, health care, advertising, finance and construction. In Colorado, the group owns Longmont’s Case Logic, a manufacturer of compact-disc cases.
Monday’s purchase marks the second investment from KRG’s $715 million Fund III, the largest leveraged-buyout fund in Colorado history. KRG, which manages more than $1.7 billion in equity, last week snapped up the Focus Corp., a Canadian engineering and land-development consulting firm.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-820-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
