December 20, 2006
Beverly Hills, CA. – December 20th, 2006 – OpenGate Capital (OGC), a private buyout firm in Los Angeles County, announced today a definitive agreement to acquire the medium-voltage power transformer facility of AREVA’s Transmission and Distribution Division (T&D) located in Medford, Oregon now known as Pacific Crest Transformers.
AREVA T&D is one of the world’s top three transmission and distribution companies with sales of 3.2 billion euros and over 22,000 employees worldwide. The newly acquired operation is a leader in the design and construction of liquid filled distribution transformers with the flexibility to offer custom designs for pad mount, substation, and specialty transformers. The AREVA’s T&D Medford transformers reduce the voltage for the specific requirements of the industrial and commercial end-users to meet the demands of a fast paced and ever changing marketplace.
Founder & Managing Partner of OpenGate Capital Andrew Nikou said, “This was a special acquisition investment for OGC, which historically would fall outside of our area of vertical concentration, however, AREVA T&D’s Medford transformer facility provides a key new platform with unique drivers that not many specialized manufacturing companies produce: proven design, customizable product sets, heavyweight customer base, and a management team with undisputed knowledge. AREVA T&D’s Medford transformer facility will present itself as a new platform in our buy and build strategy and allow us to leverage many more opportunities in the specialized manufacturing space. We’re going to have a bright future at Pacific Crest Transformers.”
OpenGate Capital is a private buyout firm focused on principal investing in high-growth/change-intensive businesses, as well as underperforming and turnaround situations. The firm combines the operational expertise and detailed due diligence capabilities of a strategic buyer with the seasoned M&A team of a traditional financial buyer. The principals of OpenGate Capital have a long and successful history of investing with management partners across a wide range of industries and transaction types, including leverage buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures and spin-offs, build-ups and venture stage investing.
