New York-based AIP describes itself as a middle-market private-equity firm that invests in North American-based industrial businesses serving domestic and global markets. In business since 1989, AIP manages a portfolio totaling more than $1 billion in committed capital, including Allied Specialty Vehicles and Heil Traler International Co.
CTP produces tires at plants in Clinton and Jackson, Tenn., and Meizhou, China; wheels in Aiken, S.C., and Ontario, Calif.; and belts in Fort Scott, Kan., and Springfield, Mo. The unit also consists of 10 distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada, along with ones in Roosendaal, Netherlands, and Meizhou, China.
The business, headquartered in Franklin, will continue to offer products under the Carlisle brand name.
Mr. Forster said he is not concerned about profit margins, even though that was a key reason Carlisle cited in putting CTP on the market in the first place.
Carlisle Chairman, CEO and President David Roberts outlined a standard earnings margin of 15 percent for Carlisle business units during a conference call in July 2013. CTP reported a 6.7 earnings margin in 2012, prompting Mr. Roberts to tell investors at that time that CTP no longer was "core to Carlisle's growth strategy."
CTP reported 2012 sales of $778 million and $52.4 million in operating income. The tire and wheel business represented an estimated $375 million to $400 million of the revenue total. Mr. Forster said the margins are acceptable, but the firm feels like it can expand them over the next few years.
