OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, has completed the acquisition of the Window and Door division of Royal Building Products, a manufacturer of vinyl window profiles and patio doors, from Axiall Corp. The division has been renamed ENERGI Fenestration Solutions (ENERGI), as part of OpenGate’s investment strategy to transition the business into a stand-alone entity. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
ENERGI was founded more than 40 years ago and is a manufacturer of rigid and cellular vinyl window and patio door profiles, as well as interior vinyl shutters and other extruded vinyl products for a variety of applications. ENERGI is headquartered in Ontario, Canada, has seven manufacturing sites in the U.S. and Canada, and employs more than 900 people.
Andrew Nikou, OpenGate Capital’s founder and CEO states: “We are incredibly proud to have acquired ENERGI as it has all of the qualities we look for in a lower middle-market, carve-out transaction: a great management team, innovative R&D and a high-quality customer base. This is yet another example of how OpenGate Capital is able to deploy our in-house team to source, acquire, transition and ultimately drive new value into businesses with untapped potential throughout North America and Matthias Gundlach, senior principal at OpenGate Capital, led the transaction and states: “This was a very competitive process with strategic and financial parties bidding for the ENERGI business. OpenGate provided Axiall with the speed, certainty and industry experience that they were looking for in a transaction partner. We were ultimately successful because of our ability to move quickly across multiple geographies, manage the complexity of this cross-border carve-out, and apply the experience in the PVC space OpenGate Capital has gained through our previous acquisitions.”
Jesse Hawthorne will continue to lead ENERGI as the company’s CEO. Hawthorne brings more than 13 years of industry experience and insight into the North American market having worked at Jeld-Wen of Canada and Royal Building Products.
The acquisition of ENERGI is the third transaction completed by OpenGate in the past three months, and the second cross-border transaction this year following OpenGate’s acquisitions of Power Partners Inc., a U.S.-based power transformer business in January 2016, and the acquisition of Bois & Matériaux, a France-based building materials distribution business from Wolseley plc.