Mergers&Acquisitions

Trulite Acquires Western States
Glass Corporation of California
Trulite Glass & Aluminum Solutions LLC has finalized the acquisition of Western States Glass, which has production facilities in Fremont, Fresno and Sacramento, Calif., offering a wide range of products from shower doors to insulated units.

As a result of this acquisition, the announcement notes that Trulite and Western States will now serve all of California; the Western States portfolio of products will broaden, offering laminated and PPG certified products produced in Trulite’s Los Angeles supercenter.

“We are excited to be part of the Trulite organization. We believe that a larger organization will allow us to provide a wider array of products and services to our loyal customer base. Our friendly merger means good things for all of us. It gives our company an extremely strong position in the marketplace and adds the strengths of Trulite to our own,” says Mickey Smith, president of Western States.

“We are delighted to partner with Mickey Smith, Jon Witkin, [former owner of Western States], and Don Post [former vice president of Western States]. We look forward to their contribution in making Trulite an even better company. We fully expect little change for the current customers and employees at Western States as a result of the acquisition,” says Paul Schmitz, CEO of Trulite. “We believe that the acquisition of Western States makes a lot of strategic sense as it gives us ability to expand into an attractive geographic region and partner with a strong management team who has demonstrated its ability to effectively service its customers. We remain interested in additional acquisitions that make good strategic sense and for which there is a strong cultural fit.”

Dorma Acquires Rutherford Controls
The Dorma Group has acquired Rutherford Controls International (RCI), a supplier of security, locksmith and architectural hardware.

“RCI is excited to play a key role in accelerating Dorma’s growth throughout the Americas,” says RCI president Eric Gowland. “Joining forces with Dorma will further enhance both our companies’ abilities to dominate our industry as innovative leaders in access control solutions.”

An announcement issued by RCI notes that Dorma intends to keep the RCI brand and also to maintain RCI business as usual including all customers, employees, sales representatives, suppliers and locations.

“The America’s region provides great opportunity for gaining market share based on our ability to offer integrated premium access solutions and the RCI acquisition represents a big step forward in this regard,” adds Wil VandeWiel, Dorma area president Americas.

Lakesmere Acquires McMullen Architectural
Lakesmere, a UK-based building envelope specialist contractor, has acquired the assets of McMullen Architectural Systems Ltd., a façade contractor also in the UK The recent acquisition will save 133 jobs in Northern Ireland, where McMullen has been trading for more than 40 years and contracting staff throughout the United Kingdom. The company and its assets will be transferred to a new subsidiary of Lakesmere, McMullen Facades Limited, and will become part of the Lakesmere group of companies.

“I have known and respected Ted McMullen and his team for many years,” says Mark Davey, managing director of Lakesmere. “They have a strong heritage in the specialist facades marketplace and we intend to ensure that the name and reputation of the company lives on as part of the Lakesmere Group. There are natural synergies between our businesses which will enable Lakesmere to offer clients an enhanced range of services in both the UK and internationally where Lakesmere has built a significant reputation in recent times.”

McMullen Facades Limited will continue to operate from its Northern Ireland headquarters.

Beneq Acquires EL Business
Beneq, a supplier of production and research equipment for thin film coatings, has acquired the Finnish-based electroluminescence business from US Planar Systems Inc., a digital display technology company. Lumineq, the name of the new business unit, will provide thin film electroluminescence technology and the industrial production of other atomic layer deposition enabled products. These products will be offered in addition to Beneq’s existing product portfolio.

“The acquisition of this business from Planar is a natural next step in Beneq’s strategy of taking ALD into industrial production, and allows us to expand our own corporate portfolio in world-leading ALD technology and related products,” says Sampo Ahonen, CEO of Beneq.

PPG Expands its Coatings Offerings
Last year was one of growth for PPG Industries. In 2012 the company increased its presence in the coatings market with a number of acquisitions.

In December PPG completed the acquisition of certain assets of Spraylat Corp., a privately-owned industrial coatings company based in Pelham, N.Y. Financial terms were not disclosed. According to the announcement, the acquisition furthers the capabilities of PPG’s industrial coatings business for both liquid and powder coatings. Spraylat coatings products are used in a number of industrial markets including architectural powder coatings. The company had annual sales of approximately $125 million in 2011.

“Acquiring Spraylat furthers PPG’s strategy to remain a leading industrial coatings supplier,” says Richard Zoulek, PPG vice president, industrial coatings, Americas. “This transaction strengthens PPG’s position in key end-use markets while expanding PPG’s overall liquid and powder coatings capabilities.”

Likewise, in a deal valued at $1.05 billion PPG reached a definitive agreement to acquire the North American architectural coatings business of AkzoNobel N.V., of Amsterdam. The transaction was approved by the board of directors of both companies and is expected to close early in the second quarter of this year, subject to regulatory approvals.

According to the announcement, the acquired business had 2011 revenues of about $1.5 billion and the acquisition includes the addition of about 600 AkzoNobel-owned paint stores creating a combined network of about 1,000 company-owned stores serving the North American market.

The acquisition includes all AkzoNobel North American architectural coatings manufacturing and distribution facilities, paint stores, product lines and employees related to the production, sale and distribution of architectural coatings in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

USG
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