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KPS Forms Holding Company to Buy Auto Suppliers
New York-based private equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP has formed a holding company, Autokiniton Global Group (AGG) LP, to buy automotive suppliers.
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New York-based private equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP has formed a holding company, Autokiniton Global Group (AGG) LP, to buy automotive suppliers.
Turnaround specialist George Thanopoulos, who has helped KPS with other ventures, has been hired as CEO of Autokiniton. KPS says it plans to invest a “significant” amount of capital to expand the business through global acquisitions.
As its first deal, AGG is buying L&W Inc., a New Boston, Mich.-based metal stamping firm. Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close this spring, weren’t disclosed.
L&W has 23 facilities and 3,200 employees in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. Founded in 1973, the company manufactures oil pans, engine mount brackets, reinforcements, stampings and supports.
Thanopoulos previously was the CEO of Metaldyne Performance Group. He became a board director at American Axle Manufacturing following that company’s $3.3 billion acquisition of Metaldyne last spring.
KPS and Thanopoulos formed HHI Group Holdings in 2005 by buying several failing suppliers. HHI was sold to another equity firm and eventually merged with Metaldyne and Grede.