Milwaukee Gear Co. and its sister company, Treat All Metals, have been acquired by High Road Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm. Milwaukee Gear is a manufacturer of custom precision spur and helical gears utilized in a number of markets, including energy, compressors, mining and other general industrial applications. Treat All Metals is the heat-treating arm of Milwaukee Gear and offers a line of heat treating services to Milwaukee Gear as well as outside customers.
Rick Fullington, president and chief executive officer of Milwaukee Gear, said he is "excited about the company’s future and the capital and operating support High Road and its equity partner, Charter Oak Equity, will bring to the company." Robert Fitzsimmons, High Road’s managing partner, told SBT that the Milwaukee companies’ management teams, employees and names will be retained. However, Milwaukee Gear’s former chief executive officer, Harold Trusky, plans to retire.
"Milwaukee Gear (and Treat All Metals) have a lot of great opportunities in the markets they’re already in," Fitzsimmons said. "We’d like to find ways to increase their capacity and we will look for add-on acquisitions that make strategic sense." Both Milwaukee companies are poised for growth, according to John Emory Jr., president and chief executive officer of Emory & Co., a Milwaukee-based investment banking firm that advised the Milwaukee firms on the transaction.
Debt financing for the transaction was provided by Babson Capital Management LLC and JP Morgan Chase. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
