Dealmaker Magazine publishes “19 Year-Sale” article by Managing Director Mark Filippell

April 25, 2007

Dealmaker Magazine featured an article written by Western Reserve Partners Managing Director Mark Filippell in its March/April 2007 issue. The article, titled, “The 19-Year Sale,” detailed Mr. Filippell’s long-term relationship with and eventual sale of Group Dekko, “a world leader in engineered outsourced electrical systems.” Mr. Filippell’s wrote, “Nearly two decades after I first began to advise a Mideastern manufacturing company, it was finally time to flip the switch. Timing really is everything.”

The article reported that Mr. Filippell’s involvement with the firm began in 1987, when cofounder Chester “Chet” Dekko retained Filippell “to help purchase the shares of his former partner’s widow. Over the ensuring two decades, [Filippell] continued to serve as Group Dekko’s banker, reviewing the company’s operating and financial strategies.”

Mr. Filippell wrote, “After Chet passed away, I assisted with an appraising. In 1996, I helped sell its wire-manufacturing business to St. Louis-based International Wire Group.” Mr. Filippell’s involvement with the company continued, and he eventually put on his “management-consultant hat and proposed a consolidation of the company’s facilities to streamline operations and costs. The management team executed the plan beautifully, improving profitability.”

Eventually, Group Dekko’s board asked Mr. Filippell and his associates to explore a sale of the firm. However, for Mr. Filippell, “writing the offering memorandum was a real challenge because the company served so many market segments through so many plants.” Mr. Filippell wrote, “Each of the strategic buyers loved certain market segments but wasn’t interested in others. Furthermore, most wanted to move the headquarters out of Kendallville and much of the manufacturing to different plants, some offshore. That was a nonstarter.”

However, Mr. Filippell soon found that “financial buyers were interested in the whole company. We narrowed the filed to two finalists; the board chose private-equity firm Centre Partners Management for its financial strength and managerial skills. The transaction closed on July 20, 2006, for an undisclosed price, a portion of which will go toward the Dekko Foundation. Group Dekko’s senior management team stayed intact and the company’s headquarters remain in Kendallville, just as the board wanted. Mission accomplished.”

Mr. Filippell closed by saying, “Many people congratulated our relatively new firm, Western Reserve, on our ‘overnight success’ in landing this deal. I had to chuckle. That ‘overnight success’ took 19 years.”

The complete text of the article in the March/April 2007 issue of Dealmaker can be found here.