Aluminum Products Firm Sold For $228M

San Francisco-based Genstar Capital LLC has offered to buy the publicly held business for $53 per share in cash - a 6 percent premium to the stock's closing price of $49.99 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.



"This is terrific," said Ronald L. Rudy, International Aluminum's president and chief executive officer. "This deal is really more like a merger because we consider ourselves partners."



International Aluminum will continue to function as it has with the same personnel and will remain headquartered in Monterey Park. But Rudy said the new arrangement has some definite advantages.



"It opens up the growth potential more than anything else," he said. "I think we're going to see more accelerated growth in the company, and it opens up terrific opportunities for people."



Darren Gold, a managing director with Genstar Capital, agreed.



"Our general approach has been to invest in companies that are working in areas we know well, such as building products," he said. "We like to be involved with businesses that are leaders, but have the potential to be even better."

Gold envisions growth for International Aluminum, both geographically and in the product lines the company sells.



"They've already done a great job ... but there's more to come," he said.



International Aluminum booked revenues of more than $280 million for the year ended June 30, 2006.



The company's board has approved the acquisition, which also must be approved by shareholders. Chairman Cornelius Vanderstar, who holds a 40 percent stake and is the company's largest shareholder, has agreed to vote his shares for the deal.



International Aluminum has operated as a publicly held company for the last 40 of its 50 years but will become private under the deal announced Wednesday, according to Rudy.



The Monterey Park company has a total work force of about 1,600 employees and operates 22 facilities in the United States. These include extrusion plants in Alhambra and Waxahachie, Texas, where the aluminum is molded and shaped into frames.



"We make windows and doors for both residential and commercial use," Rudy explained. "We're one of the top three commercial suppliers of doors, windows and curtain walls in the U.S."



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