Wind Point Sells Citadel Plastics

Wind Point Partners announced today that it has sold portfolio company Citadel Plastics to Huntsman Gay Global Capital, a Palo Alto-based private equity firm.

Wind Point formed Citadel Plastics in March 2007 in partnership with Mike Fitzpatrick. Prior to joining Citadel Plastics as CEO, Mike had a 30-year career with Rohm and Haas Company, an $8 billion public company, most recently serving as President and COO.

Mike Fitzpatrick commented, “We were able to create significant value at Citadel Plastics through an aggressive growth strategy. During Wind Point’s ownership, we completed six acquisitions, expanding our international footprint and adding new products and technologies. With our broader product line, we were able to convert many customers from metals to plastics and realize strong revenue growth.”

Mike Fitzpatrick was complemented at Citadel Plastics by Mike Huff. Prior to joining Citadel Plastics as COO, Huff served as Vice President of Global Reinforcements at Johns Manville. Previously, Huff had a 21-year career with GE Plastics. In 2010, Fitzpatrick assumed the role of Chairman and Huff became CEO. Huff will continue leading Citadel Plastics under the new ownership.

 “Citadel Plastics has been an impressive growth story, despite the economic downturn,” said Mike Huff. “We’ve captured significant cost savings, improved operations across plants and diversified our end markets, more than doubling pro forma EBITDA in five years while remaining a low-cost supplier to the industry and maintaining strong customer relationships.”

Paul Peterson, a principal at Wind Point, said, “Mike Fitzpatrick and Mike Huff are an excellent example of how Wind Point creates value by working with top caliber executives to transform middle market businesses. They executed the value creation plan and established Citadel Plastics as a global industry leader in specialty plastics.”

Service providers on the Citadel Plastics transaction: KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. served investment bankers; Reed Smith LLP acted as the legal advisor to Wind Point Partners and Citadel Plastics; Alvarez & Marsal Private Equity Services served as the financial advisors to Wind Point Partners.