DETROIT — After emerging from bankruptcy in late May, longtime supplier Dura Automotive once again has new owners.
Lexington, Ky.-based private equity firm MiddleGround Capital acquired a majority stake in the body systems supplier from Bardin Hill Investment Partners.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but according to MiddleGround’s website, the firm’s investments range from $75 million to $250 million. According to a press release, two of Middleground’s partners are Toyota Motor Corp. veterans.
“We have been searching for an opportunity to invest in a business as well-positioned as Dura to capitalize on the most disruptive trends in the automotive industry,” partner John Stewart said in a statement. Stewart spent 18 years at Toyota. “From today’s focus on electrification of the powertrain and vehicle lightweighting to some of the longer-term shifts toward autonomous driving and connected car, Dura is and will continue to be a driving force in an industry undergoing major transformation. We are delighted to support Dura on its journey.”
Detroit area private equity firm The Charlton Group Inc. is a minority owner of Dura in the deal.
Kimberly Rodriguez, a longtime auto industry turnaround consultant and current CEO of Andra Rush’s trucking empire Rush Trucking, was named Dura’s CEO, the company said in a press release. Her appointment is effective Sept. 1.
Rodriguez joined Rush in February from Detroit-based Huron Consulting Group, where she served as a senior consultant. At Huron, she assisted in the bankruptcies and restructuring of several then-distressed auto suppliers, including Tower Automotive, Dura Automotive, Revstone Industries and Collins & Aikman, among others.
Employees at Dura were informed of the deal and the incoming CEO Thursday morning.
The deal marks the third owner of the company since financier and former owner Lynn Tilton’s Patriarch Partners entered the U.S. assets of Dura under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2019. The MiddleGround deal was for the entire global company with 6,700 employees in 13 countries and revenue of $870 million last year.
Patriarch Partners, which owned 73 percent of Dura, had sought to sell the maker of driver control systems, lightweight metal vehicle frames and battery trays for a few years, with Bloomberg reporting a potential $1 billion price tag in 2018. But potential buyers walked away from a deal, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, after Dura said its revenue projections for 2019 were half as much as it originally claimed.
During the failed negotiations to sell Dura last year, Tilton collected $485,000 in management fees and charged Dura more than $1.4 million for legal fees, the newspaper reported.
Tilton’s legal troubles also plagued her attempts to sell off the supplier. She has been embroiled in highly complex securities and bankruptcy court litigation for years.
MiddleGround said it believes Dura is now well positioned with Tilton in the rear view.
“Dura’s engineering capabilities have made it a key supplier to its customer base for many decades,” Scot Duncan, founding partner and former assembly manager at Toyota, said in the press release.
“We are excited to further Dura’s legacy of partnering with its customers to develop next generation products of superior quality. We value the support Dura’s customers have shown over the years and look forward to working together on this next phase of growth.”
Dura ranked No. 97 on the 2019 Automotive News list of top 100 global suppliers with estimated sales to automakers of $1.4 billion in fiscal 2018, but the supplier fell off the list in 2020.