Shipston Equity Holdings acquires aluminium design and casting company

Shipston Equity Holdings, LLC, a privately owned company, today announced the acquisition of Compass Automotive Group, LLC, a premier aluminium design and casting company. Effective immediately, Compass will be renamed Shipston Aluminum Technologies, International (SAT). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

SAT is a leader in the design and manufacture of complex safety critical aluminium high-performance castings found in chassis, suspension, engine and driveline systems primarily for automotive industry. SAT has expertise in modified and proprietary low pressure permanent mould and squeeze casting processes that are used in applications requiring high-integrity precision. Its customers include virtually all North American, Asian and European OEMs as well as major tier 1 suppliers. The company employs approximately 400 people at manufacturing operations in Indiana and Michigan.

Shipston Chairman and CEO Michael D. Dingman, the majority shareholder, is a leading international industrialist known for his accomplishments in forming and leading several very successful diversified companies.

"We are fortunate to welcome SAT and its entire management team into Shipston as we continue our growth," Dingman said. "The addition of SAT is complementary to our core precision machining company, Busche Enterprise Division, Inc. (Busche)... We will continue to implement safety critical and technologically advanced systems and move forward incorporating world class practices with a focus on technology, weight reduction, science, robotics and other matters that will bring value to our customers, suppliers and employees."

"I'm very pleased with the acquisition of SAT as it represents one milestone in our strategy to continue our growth in precision machining under the Busche brand," Busche said. "The SAT castings expertise complements our world-class finished machining strength at Busche. Under Shipston, SAT's values will be aligned with Busche's culture; focusing on the long term operating fundamentals of quality, delivery and service. Through collaborative design, casting, validation, machining and assembly we can offer a comprehensive package under our combined operations of the Shipston Machining and Materials Technologies Group."

"The combination of a veteran operating team and our financial resources will provide the building blocks for future growth and acquisitions in this industry sector as well as others," Dingman said. "My objective is to make this my most successful operating company and position it for a solid future through acquisitions... I reasonably believe that within the next twelve months Shipston will approach revenues of $1.0 billion with both solid earnings and an excellent capital structure, positioning us for dynamic growth with complementary diversification."