Onex Corp. buys Davis-Standard from Hamilton Robinson

PAWCATUCK, CONN. (Updated Jan. 4, 5 p.m. ET) — Extrusion equipment supplier Davis-Standard LLC has a new owner, as financial group Hamilton Robinson Capital Partners completing a deal on Dec. 23 to sell the company to Onex Corp., the big Canadian private equity firm.

Onex's middle-market investing platform, ONCAP, takes over the company with annual sales of more than $300 million, Hamilton Robinson noted in a Dec. 23 news release. The Pawcatuck, Conn.-based Davis-Standard issued its own release on Jan. 4.

Neither company released the sales price, but Buyouts magazine quoted Hamilton Robinson partner Scott Oakford saying his Stamford, Conn.-based firm sold Davis-Standard for $189 million. Neither Oakford nor officials from ONCAP officials returned a telephone call for this story.

Davis-Standard makes extrusion systems for blown and cast film, pipe, profiles and tubing, extrusion coating and laminating, wire and cable coating, sheet, wood fiber applications and feed screws and barrels. The company has facilities in Pawcatuck; Bridgewater, N.J.; and Fulton, N.Y., as well as Germany and the United Kingdom,

Davis-Standard's management will remain in place under the new ownership structure, and “will continue to be significant shareholders in the business,” according to the company's press release. “ONCAP has invested significant equity into the business in order to sensibly expand Davis-Standard's global footprint,” the release said.

Charles Buckley, 66, will move from the position of CEO to chairman. Buckley was unavailable for comment. A Davis-Standard spokesman said Buckley will continue to be active in management, but not on a day-to-day basis.

The new CEO is Robert Preston. He comes to Davis-Standard from JP Poindexter Inc., a Houston venture capital and private equity firm, where he was chief operating officer and handled a portfolio of six companies in consumer durables, transportation, energy, aerospace and packaging.

Before that he was Asian president of Eastman Chemical Co., from 2004 to 2010. Preston was senior vice president of Johnson Electric Group, and president of its Industrial Products Division, from 2002 to 2004.

He also spent eight years at Honeywell International Inc., as managing director of European engineering plastics and vice president/general manager for Honeywell Specialty Materials Asia Pacific.

Hamilton Robinson bought Black Clawson, the Fulton maker of cast film and extrusion coating equipment, in 2003. Hamilton Robinson backed a management group to buy Davis-Standard in 2006. The company has grown since that time through strategic acquisitions, improvements in manufacturing, global sourcing and investments in new markets, the companies said.

For Toronto-based Onex, buying Davis-Standard marks a return to plastics machinery. Onex sold injection molding machinery maker Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. last year to Berkshire Partners LLC and Omers Private Equity Inc.

Greg Baylin, an ONCAP managing director, said Buckley, Preston and other members of the management team, are leading the company. “We look forward to continuing to grow the business, secure new customers, enter new markets and enhance the company's competitiveness to ensure its long-term success and to maintain its market leadership position,” Baylin in a prepared statement.

Buckley called Hamilton Robinson “an excellent partner that has enabled management to invest in and grow our business over the almost nine-year relationship,” Buckley said in the news release.