Crane Engineering has been acquired by AEA Investors Small Business Private Equity

Detroit, MI – CFI (PMCF) is pleased to announce it served as the exclusive investment banker to Crane Engineering Sales, LLC (“Crane” or the “Company”) in its sale of a majority interest to AEA Investors’ Small Business Private Equity (“AEA SBPE”).

Headquartered in Kimberly, Wisconsin, Crane is a value-added distributor of engineered fluid handling solutions and services. The Company uniquely blends three distinct capabilities into a highly synergistic offering, including exclusive product distribution, value-added service centers, and design and integration of complex, engineered skid systems. Founded over 80 years ago with one vendor relationship and one location, the Company has grown its footprint to become one of the pre-eminent fluid handling distributors across the Midwest region offering over 10,000 product SKUs from 600+ vendors to a highly diverse industrial customer base.

AEA Investors LP was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon and Harriman family interests and S.G. Warburg & Co. as a private investment vehicle for a select group of industrial family offices with substantial assets. Today, AEA’s approximately 120 investment professionals operate globally with offices in New York, Stamford, San Francisco, London, Munich and Shanghai. The firm manages funds that have approximately $19 billion of invested and committed capital including the leveraged buyouts of middle market companies and small business companies, growth capital and mezzanine and senior debt investments. AEA SBPE is a strategy within AEA that currently manages $3 billion of invested and committed capital. The team seeks to help grow and transform companies at the lower end of the middle market by sponsoring growing companies with proven management teams and superior business models.

The transaction closed in August 2023.