Bertram Capital Secures New Platform with Investment in Flow Control Group

Leading N. American Flow Control and Fluid Handling Distribution Platform Poised for Additional Growth

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Jan 29, 2019, 08:00 ET

SAN MATEO, Calif., Jan. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bertram Capital ("Bertram") announced today it has partnered with the executive management team to acquire Flow Control Group (the "Company") from AEA Investors SBF. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Flow Control Group is the largest independent specialty flow control and fluid handling distribution platform in North America, servicing more than 10,000 customers and 2,000 suppliers. Bertram's investment in Flow Control Group represents the seventh platform acquisition completed in its third fund. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"Flow Control Group serves a key role in providing mission-critical, complementary products enabling customers to operate their manufacturing facilities efficiently and effectively," said Jeff Drazan, Managing Partner of Bertram Capital. "Flow Control Group has successfully executed a buy-and-build strategy to acquire the best regional distributors in the industry. In addition to partnering with our industrials team, led by Kevin Yamashita, Tim Heston and Ray Kataria, Flow Control Group will work closely with Bertram Lab's IT services team to support its growth initiatives."

Flow Control Group was founded in 2014 and has completed 18 acquisitions since its inception. With 47 locations across the U.S. and Canada, Flow Control Group is well-positioned to serve the evolving needs of a market driven by technical sales and service relationships between distributors and customers, both nationally and locally.

The Company's senior leadership team, with the support of Bertram, will continue to pursue its buy-and-build strategy, targeting businesses with strong market reputations and entrenched customer and supplier relationships in complementary geographies. The team will also focus on organic growth initiatives, including further diversifying the Company's product portfolio, expanding its geographic presence and increasing share-of-wallet with existing customers.

"As we considered potential partners, Bertram's differentiated value creation approach and past success in implementing buy-and-build strategies to create industry-leading companies distinguished the firm," added David Patterson, CEO of Flow Control Group. "Bertram's experience in the flow control and fluid handling industry, and distribution market segments, coupled with a shared vision for the opportunities to expand Flow Control Group's business, made Bertram our partner of choice."

"We have been extremely impressed with the duration and diversity of Flow Control Group's tenured customer and supplier relationships, including customers across industrial, life sciences, petrochemical, chemicals, food & beverage and power generation industry segments," concluded Kevin Yamashita, Partner at Bertram Capital. "We are equipped to work with this exceptional management team to harness the breadth of the Company's resources to deliver strong value for customers and expand market share for key suppliers. We would like to recognize the teams at Baird and Hirschler Fleischer for their efforts in closing this transaction and making this partnership possible."

About Bertram Capital

Bertram Capital is a private equity firm with over $1.4 billion in committed capital targeting investments in lower middle market companies. In addition to supplying strategic growth capital, Bertram Capital leverages proprietary processes and services, Bertram High-5^SM and Bertram Labs, to empower its portfolio companies to unlock their full potential. The Bertram High-5^SM is an operationally-focused value creation strategy, which includes supporting management, implementing operational initiatives, acquiring complementary businesses, enhancing sales and marketing efforts, leveraging technology and IP. The cornerstone of this strategy is Bertram Labs, its in-house technology team, which drives growth and value through digital marketing, e-commerce, big data and analytics, application development and internal and external platform optimization. Visit www.bertramcapital.com for more information.

SOURCE Bertram Capital