Posted November 30, 2011
Equity firm buys Capital Safety
Global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Capital Safety from Arle Capital Partners for $1.12 billion.
With roots dating back to 1938, Capital Safety designs and produces fall protection equipment (FPE) solutions for workers at height. A subset of the $20 billion safety equipment sector, FPE is a rapidly growing industry driven by rising social and regulatory focus on worker safety, in addition to underlying growth in key end-markets across developed and emerging geographies.
Capital Safety's products and solutions, which include harnesses, lanyards, self-retracting lifelines and engineered systems, are sold through the DBI-SALA, PROTECTA and UNILINE brands.
"We see attractive growth prospects for the safety equipment industry overall, but we believe fall protection is particularly attractive because of the segment's weighting towards energy and infrastructure and because of the potential for future growth due to further development of safety regulations, particularly in emerging markets, and increased compliance globally," said Pete Stavros, a director in KKR's Industrials group. "As a market leader with a highly focused business model and outstanding relationships with both distributors and end-customers, Capital Safety is well positioned to capture the significant secular growth ahead of it."
The transaction is expected to close in January.
