May River Capital Acquires Kason Corporation

New material processing equipment platform signals growth in sector

On Sep 6, 2019

May River Capital (May River) a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on lower middle market industrial growth companies, has established Advanced Material Processing (AMP), a new platform company focused on material processing equipment for such sectors as food and beverage, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and chemical. Concurrently, May River completed the acquisition of Kason Corporation, which will be a part of AMP, along with May River’s existing portfolio company, Marion Process Solutions.

“AMP is an exciting new platform for May River,” said May River’s Partner, Chip Grace. “Material processing equipment is a highly fragmented sector. Combining industry leading, complementary material processing equipment manufacturers will allow us to advance engineering capabilities, in addition to providing other synergies. Our goal is to create short and long term value by providing better products and services to our customers.”

Headquartered in Milburn, Kason has nearly 50 years of experience designing and manufacturing screening, drying, cooling and processing equipment. The company serves a range of industries including food, pharmaceutical, chemical, plastic, energy, minerals, aerospace and defense. Marion Process Solutions, an 80-year-old company based in Marion, IA, custom manufactures processing solutions with industrial mixers and blenders, as well as microwave vacuum drying systems. Marion focuses on food, nutraceutical, mineral, plastic, chemical and biomass industries.

“These two companies offer a deeply-synergistic opportunity to scale a set of highly-engineered product portfolios that are tailored to mission critical applications,” said Henry Alamzad, CEO, Kason Corporation. “We look forward to expanding their footprints whilst bringing the strengths of both organizations to bear in the market, solving the greater material processing needs of our customers.”

“Great things happen when you align industry leaders, and the combination of Kason and Marion brings a new level of competitive advantage to our customers,” said Lee Eilers, CEO of Marion Process Solutions. “These are certainly exciting times as AMP continues to expand its product and service offering to serve a market that expects excellence as the benchmark.”

“Both Kason and Marion have strong foundations to build upon, and we look forward to extending Kason’s and Marion’s reach to new customers and markets with this engineering force,” said May River Partner, Steve Griesemer.

“I’m especially excited to work with the Kason and Marion teams and their channel partners to build a global platform with a focus on organic and acquisitive growth in the hygienic process end markets,” said Brad Sterner, executive chairman of AMP.

Winston & Strawn LLP served as legal counsel to May River and Abacus Finance Group, LLC, and Northstar Capital provided debt financing in support of the transaction. Hennepin Partners LLC served as financial advisor and Paul Hastings LLP served as legal counsel to Kason Corporation and its shareholders.

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