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KKR Buys Capital Safety for $1.12B

Friday, December 9, 2011

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Capital Safety, a global supplier of fall-protection, confined-space and rescue equipment, has been sold to investment buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) for $1.12 billion.

Capital Safety

Capital Safety claims “more patents, more engineers and more industry innovations than any other fall protection manufacturer.”

The deal, announced Nov. 28, should be completed in January, said Capital Safety, which manufactures the DBI-SALA, Uniline and Protecta brands and has corporate roots dating to 1938.

Safety Equipment: $20B Industry

Capital Safety currently produces lanyards, harnesses, anchors, vertical and horizontal systems, confined-space, descent, rescue and other safety equipment for the oil and gas, utilities, energy, transportation and other markets.

KKR will continue to invest in the company and expand those products and markets, said Capital Safety CEO Anders Pettersson.

Safety equipment is now a $20 billion industry, and few segments are growing faster than fall protection, KKR notes in a release. Falls remain the leading cause of death in the construction industry.

Fall protection will see “significant” growth as an industry, “because of the segment's weighting towards energy and infrastructure” and because of “further development of safety regulations, particularly in emerging markets, and increased compliance globally,” said Pete Stavros, a director in KKR’s Industrials group.

Capital Safety is “well positioned to capture” that growth, with its management team, “‘can do’ attitude, culture of innovation, and richness of end-customer insight that sets it apart from the competition,” Stavros said.

Fast-Track Growth

Capital Safety has doubled its revenues through its four years of ownership by Arle Capital Partners, and both the company and its new parent clearly expect it the fast-track growth to continue.

Capital has made several acquisitions of its own recently and has kept up a steady pace of product releases in recent years. The company claims “more patents, more engineers and more industry innovations than any other fall protection manufacture.”

“Strong interest in our company is confirmation of our strategic direction and testament to the most experienced team of fall-protection experts in the world," said Pettersson.

"Without them, we could not have countered the global economic stresses and served a record number of customers with a record number of products."