Deals

Riverside acquires UK’s Sentinel from GE

The US lower midmarket buyout firm has paid $44 million to acquire heating-system additives business Sentinel Performance Solutions from General Electric.

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The Riverside Company, the US-based buyout firm specialising in the lower midmarket, has acquired heating-system additives business Sentinel Performance Solutions from a division of General Electric.
 
The firm has paid $44 million to buy the Widnes, UK-based company from Trevose, Pennsylvania-based General Electric Infrastructure, Water and Process Technologies. The investment was made by its 2003 fund, RCAF 03, and its second European fund, REF II.

Sentinel has a significant market share and a very good brand

Antonio Cabral, head of European operations, The Riverside Company

Sentinel manufactures chemicals that clean and protect boiler-based residential heating systems in order to improve their efficiency and extend their lifespan. It has around 50,000 customers, and its core markets are the UK, France and Italy.
 
Antonio Cabral, the head of Riverside’s European operation, told PEO that Riverside preferred to acquire companies that are dominant in a particular niche. “Sentinel has a significant market share and a very good brand,” he said.
 
He added that the firm hopes to continue to build the business’s market share in Europe, to introduce new product lines, and to make some add-on acquisitions.
 
The Riverside Company invests in companies with Ebitda of under $100 million. As well as four US offices, including New York and Cleveland, it has teams in Prague, Budapest, Munich and Warsaw.
 
This is the firm’s third European acquisition in as many months. It follows July’s acquisition of Welltec, a Danish tool maker for the oil and gas industry; and June’s purchase of Czech IT books and magazines publisher Computer Press.