OpenGate Capital Seals Acquisition of Duraco Specialty Tapes from Essentra plc

Highly Engineered Specialty Tapes Corporate Carve-Out Marks Fourth Investment in OpenGate Capital’s Second Institutional Fund

LOS ANGELES, CA and PARIS, FRANCE – July 1, 2019 – OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, announced today that it has acquired Duraco Specialty Tapes (“Duraco”) from UK-based Essentra plc (LSE:ESNT). The transaction marks the fourth portfolio investment completed through OpenGate Capital’s second institutional fund since May 15^th of this year. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Andrew Nikou, OpenGate Capital’s founder and CEO commented, “The acquisition of Duraco from Essentra is a unique opportunity within the specialty tapes market. It is a leading player in a fragmented industry, and shows potential to be a platform for future roll-up acquisitions. We pride ourselves in our ability to partner with corporations divesting non-core assets, and we intend to take the upsides we’ve identified in the business to drive its full optimization. OpenGate thanks Essentra for entrusting our firm to take Duraco to its next, transformative era.”

Duraco is a B2B manufacturer of specialty tapes, which are sold into highly attractive end markets including Point-of-Purchase displays, appliances, transit packaging, construction, signage, and HVAC. Duraco’s application-specific tapes are strong alternatives to mechanical fasteners and traditional glues offering benefits from better adhesion, efficiencies in customer’s assembly operations, breadth of substrates, and other properties. Customers benefit from great customer service and experienced personnel to determine which products are ideal for their specific application. Based on the strength of Duraco’s engineering and production quality, many of the business’s customer relationships exceed 40 years. Headquartered in Forest Park, Illinois, Duraco has a workforce of 133 employees, with three service centers that are located in Los Angeles, California, Edison, New Jersey, and Houston, Texas.

OpenGate Capital sourced Duraco through its global origination team led by Joshua Adams, Managing Director – Business Development.  From the firm’s Los Angeles office, the following team members are responsible for negotiating and overseeing the investment: Matthias Gundlach, Managing Director – M&A; and Paul Bridwell, Managing Director – Operations.

The acquisition of Duraco follows the recently completed acquisitions of Fiven A/S from Saint-Gobain, SMAC from Colas, and Sargeant & Greenleaf from Stanley Black & Decker.

About OpenGate Capital

Founded in 2005, OpenGate Capital is a global private equity firm that strives to acquire and optimize lower middle market businesses throughout North America and Europe. With a strategic international presence and a focus on corporate carve-outs and complex situations, the firm’s expertise allows it to realize a seller’s divestiture objectives while mitigating the risks associated with a business’s transition to independence. OpenGate is headquartered in Los Angeles and Paris and has a seasoned in-house team of professionals overseeing the entire lifecycle of each investment. To learn more about OpenGate, please visit www.opengatecapital.com.