Shiloh Industries, a portfolio firm of MiddleGround Capital, has reportedly acquired two U.S. automotive facilities from Benteler International. The acquisition is the first add-on investment of MiddleGround to Shiloh, which the company took private in 2020. This deal also marks the third investment of the private equity firm in the automotive industry in the last 13 months.
Earlier in 2021, the company raised its Mobility Opportunity Fund, LP, a vehicle committed to investing behind disruptive trends transforming the automotive sector which includes power electrification, vehicle light-weighting, connected car as well as autonomous driving technologies.
The Benteler facilities, situated in Goshen, Indiana, and Kalamazoo, Michigan offer complementary welding and hot forming capabilities to Shiloh, as it has organized the operations to emphasize light-weighting within its stamping business under the ownership of MiddleGround.
Certain assets of the business of U.S. BlankLight® were bought by Worthington Industries in June 2021. The deal comprised four facilities with locations in Canton, Michigan; Bowling Green, Kentucky, and two across Valley City, Ohio. Months before April, Aludyne purchased the CastLight® business of Shiloh.
John Stewart, the Founding Partner of MiddleGround, commented that Benteler, with over 140 years of experience, is highly admired in the automotive sector. The company looks forward to working with the teams at these plants to further back its investment in the Shiloh/Dura platforms.
With the introduction of hot stamping into the group of lightweight structures, the company continues to build out a provision of assets as well as talent that are crucial for automotive OEMs as they work to eliminate weight out of the vehicle to meet the standards of fuel emission and to enhance the efficiency of electric vehicles, said Stewart.
Scot Duncan, the Founding Partner, quoted that the Kalamazoo and the Goshen facilities are well maximized and have the open capacity to serve existing as well as future consumers. MiddleGround has a long-term foresight for the automotive industry and these plants provide great opportunities for its Shiloh/Dura platforms to cater to those needs, said Duncan.
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