Photo Stencil, the leading provider of premium stencils and additional high-end tooling for the SMT assembly industry, announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by Kachi Partners, a private equity firm located in Boulder, Colorado, in a leveraged buy-out transaction. The acquisition was financed with debt from Fifth Third Bank in Denver. Mirus Capital Advisors, a middle-market investment bank based in Massachusetts advised Photo Stencil.
“This transaction represents an important step in Photo Stencil’s long-term growth strategy, which will ultimately include the introduction of new products and services, and geographic expansion that will help us to better serve our customers worldwide,” says Bill Moerbe, president of Photo Stencil.
“Photo Stencil is an extremely well-managed company with a highly scalable business model,” says Eric Weissmann, a managing director at Kachi Partners. “Its comprehensive services and cutting-edge technology will support organic and strategic growth.”
Pallet Manufacturing Expansion The acquisition will infuse the capital required to accelerate the implementation of key growth initiatives at Photo Stencil, starting with the expansion of wave solder and pallet manufacturing in Colorado Springs. Scheduled to launch in mid-July, this service provides customers with the opportunity to purchase all assembly tooling from a single source using data already provided to fabricate stencils. Other new services will follow in the second half of 2007.
Based in Colorado Springs, with operations in Mexico and Malaysia, Photo Stencil’s extensive line of precision tooling includes electroformed, laser-cut and chemically etched stencils, as well as screens and templates for the manufacturing, assembly and inspection of PCBs. Significant and on-going R&D efforts have made the company a technology leader in the market for over 20 years. Photo Stencil holds six key patents.
