SPG to make second acquisition

SPG Partners has agreed to acquire majority ownership of Excel Mining Systems, a Bowerston, Ohio-based maker of roof support products for underground coal mines. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Excel, founded in 1991 by President and CEO Bruce Cassidy, has six manufacturing sites in Ohio, Virginia, Illinois and Utah. SPG said that Paul Chellgren, one of the firm’s operating partners, will become non-executive chairman of the board of Excel once the acquisition is completed. Chellgren has over 30 years of experience in the US coal industry, most recently as chairman and CEO of Ashland Coal, which he participated in the creation of in the mid-1970’s.

This is the second deal for SPG Partners, which was created last year. The firm is a collaboration between Ian Snow, a former key Ripplewood Holdings managing director, Ogden Phipps, of the Phipps family group, and Guggenheim Partners, a diversified financial services company.

The firm’s first investment was a $109 million acquisition of a controlling interest in textile fiber producer Fibervisions in February of this year. Terms of that deal gave SPG Partners a 51 percent stake in FiberVisions and an option to purchase an additional 14 percent for $7.4 million.

According to a source, SPG Partners is currently raising a fund, Snow, Phipps & Guggenhem, LP, which has a target of $500 million (€415 million).

Earlier this month SPG named Julian “Jay” B. Twombly as an operating partner. Twomby is the former president of a division of SPX Corporation, which provides industrial flow technology and test measurement products.