Center Rock Completes Sale of Leading Value-Added Distributor of Specialty Pipe and Tube
Center Rock Capital Partners, LP (“Center Rock”) is pleased to announce that it has sold American Piping Products (“APP” or the “Company”) to SCF Partners (“SCF”), a private equity firm focused on investments in energy services and infrastructure.
Headquartered in Chesterfield, MO, APP is a leading value-added distributor of specialty pipe, tube, fittings, and flanges serving diversified industrial customers across many sectors including energy, power generation, data centers, and petrochemicals. The Company stocks more than 60,000 tons of piping products, and provides a suite of finishing services, including cut-to-length, beveling, profiling, threading, and coating, with quick turnaround times and low minimum order sizes.
Following Center Rock’s acquisition of APP in 2018, Center Rock partnered with management to broaden the Company’s product offering, including the build-out of a dedicated mechanical tubing division and expanding its geographic footprint with a greenfield facility in the Southeast US.
Terry Theodore, Founding Partner at Center Rock, stated, “APP is a business that earns its position in the market by solving difficult problems for its customers, and that discipline is embedded in the Company’s culture. The model is simple to describe and difficult to execute. Specialty pipe when you need, how you need it, where you need it. It requires broad inventory, rapid turnaround, and the deep expertise necessary to understand and manage a multi-national supply chain for its customers. Our thesis rested on the durability of that model and expanding that model into other markets. The Company’s strong performance over our investment period confirmed it. Management has grown the business organically, while maintaining the core of what made APP successful. We are grateful to Mike Hubbell and the APP team for their partnership, and we thank them for their trust.”
“Center Rock has been a valued partner to APP,” said Mike Hubbell, CEO of American Piping Products. “Their support extended beyond capital to the development of our organization and a shared commitment to the customer-first culture that defines our Company. We are proud of what we have built and look forward to the next chapter of continued expansion and growth with SCF Partners,” added Mr. Hubbell.
Charlie Carson, Senior Associate at Center Rock, added, “APP’s performance over our investment period speaks to the strength of the organization. The Company met the demands of a challenging operating environment without sacrificing its commitment to the customer. We thank Mike Hubbell, Mike Hart, and the entire APP organization for their partnership.”
Honigman LLP provided legal counsel to APP and Center Rock and Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor in connection with the transaction.
About American Piping Products
American Piping Products is a leading value-added distributor of specialty seamless and welded pipe, mechanical tubing, fittings, and flanges to customers in the diversified industrial, energy, refining, and chemical end-markets. Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Chesterfield, MO, the Company operates distribution and processing facilities in Houston, TX; Chicago, IL and Gastonia, NC.
For more information, please visit www.amerpipe.com.