CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE Antares Capital and its sister company, GE Leveraged Loans Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, today announced their role as administrative agent for an $80.0 million U.S. senior credit facility and a £15.0 million U.K. senior credit facility to support KNIA Holdings, Inc. ("KNIA"), an affiliate of funds managed by Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C. ("Kohlberg") in its acquisition of Niagara Corporation ("Niagara"). GE Capital Markets served as the sole lead arranger and bookrunner for the credit facility.
The U.S. facility consisted of a $65.0 million revolving credit facility and a $15.0 million term loan. The U.K. facility consisted of a £15.0 million revolver. KNIA used a portion of the proceeds to acquire Niagara with the remainder of the facility available to Niagara to implement its business growth strategy and for other general corporate purposes.
Niagara produces and distributes specialty and commodity steel bar products that are used in a vast number of industries including aerospace, agriculture, automotive, construction, and oil drilling. In the U.S., Niagara operates five production facilities, which produce cold finished bars for sale primarily to steel service centers. In the U. K., Niagara maintains hot rolling, cold finishing and distribution operations. The hot rolling operations offer one of the most complete ranges of round, hexagon, flat, square and special profile bars and sections to the manufacturing industry worldwide.
"Niagara represents an outstanding investment and lending opportunity for GE Antares as the Company is a market leader in the cold finished steel bar market as well as having very attractive growth prospects. We are pleased to once again support Kohlberg, as well as the outstanding management team at Niagara," said Chet Zara, Senior Managing Director of GE Antares Capital.
Christopher Anderson, Principal at Kohlberg said, "GE Antares' ability to underwrite and commit to the first and second lien facilities on an expedited timetable was important to us as we negotiated with Niagara." Anderson added that, "GE Antares' flexible financing package and international lending capabilities should ensure that Niagara has sufficient funding to achieve its current and future initiatives. We hope to continue to grow with both Niagara and GE Antares in the years ahead."
About Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C.
Founded in 1987, Kohlberg & Company is a leading middle-market private equity firm with offices in Mt. Kisco, New York and Palo Alto, California. Together with its affiliates, Kohlberg manages more than $2.5 billion of capital. Through its affiliates, Kohlberg has completed over 75 acquisition and recapitalization transactions in a variety of industries, including a focus on investments in manufacturing, healthcare, consumer products and service industries.
About GE Antares Capital
GE Antares Capital is a unit of GE Commercial Finance - Global Sponsor Finance. With over $8 billion in assets, and offices in Chicago, London, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, GE Antares offers a "one-stop" source for GE's lending and other services offered to the private equity sponsor middle market. Visit www.geantares.com.
About GE Commercial Finance
GE Commercial Finance, which offers businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services, has assets of over $206 billion and is headquartered in Norwalk Connecticut. GE (NYSE: GE) is Imagination at Work -- a diversified technology, media and financial services company focused on solving some of the world's toughest problems. With products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and advanced materials, GE serves customer in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
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