Riverside Couples New Car to Nordco Train
Firm Chugs Along with 10 Acquisitions Year to Date
(March 6, 2007) | The Riverside Company has kept up an
aggressive acquisition schedule and has closed another deal,
racking up the firm's 10th acquisition of 2007. The most
recent acquisition, Dapco, is an add-on to Nordco, a leading
designer and provider of railroad maintenance-of-way ("MOW")
equipment, rebuilding services and repair parts that Riverside
acquired in July 2003.
The Dapco add-on has two product lines:
Dapco Technologies, LLC ("Rail
Services"), which owns and operates
ultrasonic rail inspection vehicles,
and Dapco Industries ("Industries"),
which specializes in the design and
manufacture of customized, turnkey computerized
inspection systems. Dapco expands Nordco's
capabilities in the rail inspection
services market and strengthens its
market position and product offering.
The company is the second add-on to
the Nordco platform; in September 2006,
Riverside acquired J.E.R. Overhaul,
which repairs and rebuilds a wide variety
of used MOW equipment. With the acquisition
of Dapco, Nordco further diversifies
its rail service offering for the "Class
1" railroads.
Dapco, founded in the early 1970s,
went on to develop a fleet of rail inspection
vehicles designed and customized to
leverage the opportunity that broke
a 35-year monopoly, presented by federally-mandated
railroad inspections. Industries develops
customized software and hardware used
in railway wheel inspection systems,
steel mills as well as industrial high-pressure
cylinder inspections. The rail inspection
vehicles apply GPS and AI to identify,
classify and document rail defects.
Rail inspection is mandated by governmental
regulations; the individual railroads
determine the frequency of tests based
on a variety of factors including millions
of gross tons traversing the track.
"Nordco is a classic example
of how Riverside buys and builds small
companies," said Tim Gosline, Riverside
Partner. "Working closely with
management, we've undertaken a number
of initiatives - strategic planning,
lean manufacturing, and identifying
strong add-on candidates - that have
together created a terrific platform.
We're very excited by how well Nordco
integrates add-ons and by the opportunities
created by these purchases."
"Dapco enables us to take advantage
of the favorable trends of increasing
rail traffic volume and heavier axel
loads over less track, which have forced
increased MOW spending," explained
Bruce Boczkiewicz, Nordco Chief Executive
Officer.
Working with Gosline on the transactions
were Chip Walker, Riverside Vice President;
Karim Botros, Riverside Senior Associate;
and Brian Finkelstein, Riverside Analyst.
Merrill Lynch Capital and M&I Marshall
& Ilsley Bank provided financing
for the acquisition.
The
Riverside Company
The Riverside Company is the
largest private equity firm focused
on the smaller end of the middle market
and is one of the industry's most experienced
leveraged buyout investors. Riverside
specializes in premier companies with
enterprise values of less than $100
million, and partners with strong management
teams to build companies through acquisitions
and value-added growth. Since 1988,
the firm has invested in 157 transactions
with a total value of $2.7 billion,
sales of $2.5 billion, EBITDA of $323
million, and more than 11,000 employees.
Its current portfolio in the U.S. and
Europe numbers 59. Riverside offers
SureClose® (the highest certainty
that a transaction will close) and the
resources to complete acquisitions smoothly
and in as little as 30 days - thanks
to its sizeable pool of capital under
management ($1.6 billion in eight funds
and growing), large staff in 11 offices
(New York, Cleveland, Dallas, San Francisco,
Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Budapest,
Prague, Warsaw, and Munich), and long-standing
relationships with partner lenders.
The firm has produced top quartile returns
for its investors, which are among the
world's leading pension funds, endowments,
funds-of-funds, insurance companies
and banks.
Dapco Technologies and Dapco Industries, Inc.
With more than 30 years of design innovation
and industry knowledge, Dapco's fleet
of rail inspection vehicles supports the
rail inspection needs of the "Class
1" railroads across the country.
From initial design to turnkey solutions,
Dapco goes beyond the expected, puts safety
first and delivers inspection services
with the highest success rate in the industry.
Please visit www.dapcondt.com for more
information.
Nordco, Inc.
Nordco
is the leading manufacturer of railroad
maintenance-of-way (MOW) equipment in
North America. The Company serves the
North American freight, transit and passenger
railroad markets, for which it provides
equipment used to replace ties and rails,
surface track and clear right-of-ways.
Customers include all "Class 1"
North American railroads, regional and
short-line railroads, transit systems,
contractors and the U.S. military. Please
visit www.nordco.com for more information.
For more information, contact:
Christine Croissant
The Riverside Company
216-344-1180
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