Luvata completes sale of US operations

USA: Luvata has completed the sale of its North American Tubes operations to Waybill USA Inc.

Waybill is a new company formed by Ron Beal, president of Luvata ACR Tubes Division, and David Lilley, a copper specialist and co-founder of Red Kite, the largest metals-focused hedge fund and investment company.

This announcement of the sale completes the sales of all the operating divisions and facilities of Luvata Group, which was purchased from Outokumpu Oy by Nordic Capital Fund V in 2005. Luvata Group’s other businesses have been sold as separate entities over the last 12 months to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Modine Manfacturing Company, and Zhejiang Hailiang Co Ltd.

Luvata’s North American Tubes Division has two plants employing over 400 staff in Franklin, Kentucky and Monterrey, Mexico.

Commenting on the sale, Ron Beal said: “David and I see this as a great opportunity to combine our industry knowledge and experience. This will allow us to further develop and grow the Luvata Tubes North American business. Our focus will be to continue to strengthen our valued relationships with key customers, suppliers and our employees.”

The Franklin and Monterrey operations will continue to use the name Luvata for a short period and will re-brand with a new name in 2018.

Luvata Franklin is located in Kentucky just north of Nashville, Tennessee and manufactures high performance tube, hairpins, corrosion solutions, and high-pressure alloy tube UniIlloy for the air conditioning and refrigeration industry.

Luvata Monterrey is one of Luvata’s newest copper-tube manufacturing facilities.

Ron Beal has been with Luvata since being appointed president and general manger at the Franklin plant in 2003. He has been president of the Luvata’s ACR Tubes Division for the last 11 year.

David Lilley has been active in the physical copper market for 30 years. He started his career at Cargill, moving to Philipp Brothers and then joining Metallgesellshaft. In 2004 he co-founded Red Kite which became the largest metals focused hedge fund and investment manager.

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