Houlihan Lokey Advises The Crown Group

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce it has advised The Crown Group (Crown), a portfolio company of High Road Capital Partners (High Road) and Charter Oak Equity (Charter Oak), on the sale of the business to PPG (NYSE:PPG). The transaction closed on October 2, 2017.

Headquartered in Warren, Michigan, Crown is the leading independent outsourced coatings services provider in North America. Crown applies coatings to customers' manufactured parts and assembled products at 11 U.S. sites, most of which are co-located with customers or located in major manufacturing regions. Crown primarily serves the automotive, agriculture, construction, and heavy truck industries.

High Road is a private equity firm focused on smaller middle-market transactions. High Road was formed in 2007 and has raised over $470 million of committed capital since inception. High Road focuses on niche-leading companies with revenues of $10 million to $100 million and EBITDA of $3 million to $10 million. Once a company is acquired, High Road works in partnership with its management to take it to the next level through a combination of organic growth initiatives and add-on acquisitions.

Charter Oak was founded in 2006 and, together with its predecessor funds, has invested over $500 million in more than 50 transactions since 1992. Charter Oak focuses on niche manufacturing, value-added distribution, and service companies ranging in size from $25 million to $150 million in enterprise value.

PPG is a leading global manufacturer of paints, coatings, and specialty materials and a Fortune 200 company with global headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and operations in more than 70 countries around the world.