Graham Partners Stops Traffic with Latest Acquisition

Graham Partners announced today that on December 15, 2010, they closed the acquisition of Eberle Design, Inc., a market leader in traffic control products. Eberle designs reliable, high-performance components that enable transportation engineers to manage intersections more safely and efficiently.

Eberle, founded in 1980, is an industry leader in conflict monitors, inductive loop detectors, solid state load switches, flashers and power supplies. Eberle’s market-leading position can be attributed to its patents, new product engineering, and sizeable installed base of products throughout the U.S. and Canada..

Graham Partners specializes in buyouts of middle market manufacturing companies. The firm’s strategy is to acquire industrial and manufacturing-related businesses that are benefiting from product or technology substitution trends or raw materials conversions in their industries, where Graham can utilize its extensive operating resources and industrial network to add value during its holding period.

As population density and traffic congestion grows, there is increasing need for efficiently timed and managed intersections. State and local governments are attempting to ease congestion through networking technologies that control traffic intersections and enable remote monitoring and configuration. Eberle’s broad Ethernet-enabled product line positions the company to take advantage of this growing trend.

According to Andrew Snyder, Principal at Graham Partners, “We proactively identified the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) niche as one of our investment sector themes. The opportunity to acquire Eberle was sourced on a proprietary basis through our efforts in this space, and we immediately saw tremendous value in its established brand name and reputation.”.

“During my nine year tenure at Eberle, the company has continued to grow by developing innovative traffic control products,” stated Eberle’s President, Bill Russell. “Eberle has always focused on high quality products and has held a firm commitment to total customer satisfaction.”

Bill added, “The Graham team spent the time to learn the industry. I look forward to working with them to take Eberle to the next level. I am confident that under Graham’s ownership, Eberle will continue to deliver excellent service and new products to better serve our customers’ needs.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Graham Partners (www.grahampartners.net): Graham Partners is a leading, lower middle market private equity firm based in suburban Philadelphia with over $1.5 billion under management. Graham Partners is sponsored by the privately held Graham Group of York, Pennsylvania, an industrial and investment concern with global interests in plastics, packaging, machinery, building products and outsource manufacturing. Graham Partners seeks to acquire industrial and manufacturing-related companies with revenues between $30 million and $500 million that participate in niches where Graham can leverage its unique combination of operating resources and financial expertise to drive value creation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Christina Morin (cmorin@grahampartners.net)
Rob Newbold (rnewbold@grahampartners.net)
Andrew Snyder (asnyder@grahampartners.net)
Tel: (610) 408-0500 / Fax: (610) 408-0600
www.grahampartners.net