Audax Private Equity Buys RelaDyne, LLC

CINCINATTI, OH, July 28, 2016 – RelaDyne LLC (“Reladyne”) is excited to announce it has officially closed its transaction with Audax Private Equity (“Audax”), a private equity firm focused on building leading middle market companies. The transaction closed on July 22, 2016. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Audax partners with management teams to transform established market leading companies into appreciably larger, better-positioned, and more valuable enterprises.

RelaDyne, with this new partnership, will be focused on aggressively growing through acquisitions and organically. RelaDyne will continue to be focused on growth in the Lubricant, Reliability Services, and Fuel businesses in alignment with its strategic vendors. The entire leadership and management team will remain with the organization through this change of ownership and will continue to invest in high quality associates through future acquisitions and new hires.

“RelaDyne and its team of 750+ associates are excited to partner with Audax,” states Larry Stoddard, President and CEO of RelaDyne. “We are very appreciative of the investment made into our infrastructure and growth that has allowed us to get to this point.”

RelaDyne was formed in 2010 by the combination of four industry-leading oil distributors and the financial backing of AEA Investors LP, a leading global private investment firm focused on private equity and debt investments in the middle market, and Kidd & Company, LLC. Since its formation, RelaDyne has completed over 20 acquisitions and has grown to over 40 locations servicing customers in 45 states and 22 nations.

“We are proud of the business we have built over the last 6 years, but we are just getting started…,” says Jeff Hart, who leads RelaDyne’s M&A activities and is one of its founders. “With this new partnership with Audax, we’ll be able to significantly increase our M&A activities to continue our mission to become a national platform for the distribution of lubricants, fuel and reliability services.”

About RelaDyne

RelaDyne, Inc., headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of the largest providers of integrated equipment reliability management products and services for industrial, commercial, transportation and automotive businesses in the United States. Four industry leaders--Mid-Town Petroleum, Inc. (Bridgeview, IL), Oil Distributing Company (Cincinnati, OH), The Hurt Company, Inc. (Houston, TX) and Pumpelly Oil Company (Sulphur, LA) - joined to form RelaDyne on November 8, 2010. The company's innovative Field Reliability Management (FRM) platform of services is designed to enhance the operations of companies involved in process manufacturing, utilities, food and beverage processing, mining equipment and commercial fleets. RelaDyne also benefits from an exclusive relationship with Mansfield Oil and the support of its business building partner, Kidd & Company, who originally conceived the RelaDyne concept, and AEA Investors LP, which manages funds worth approximately $5 billion of invested and committed capital. For more information, visit www.RelaDyne.com.

About AEA Investors

AEA is one of the most experienced international private equity investment firms, 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. AEA's active investors include a network of more than 70 highly successful business executives, industrial families and influential institutional investors. The firm manages funds that have approximately $5 billion of invested and committed capital. AEA has continued the operational and industrial orientation of its founders as it seeks investments in well-positioned businesses which can benefit from transformational capital to improve operationally, strategically and financially. This business building focus has allowed AEA to invest successfully over many economic cycles.

About Kidd & Company, LLC

Kidd & Company, LLC (KCO) is an independent private equity firm based in Old Greenwich, CT.  KCO traces its roots to 1976 when the firm's founding partner, William Kidd, made his first private equity investment.  Today, KCO sponsors control equity investments in the lower middle market where the complementary skills and experience of the firm's partners can be applied to create significant value over time.  KCO implements fundamental strategic and operational improvements that drive above-market growth in revenue and earnings, both organically and through accretive acquisitions.  The diverse skill set of the firm’s partners allows KCO to bring management, operational, sales and marketing, corporate finance, and M&A expertise to bear to substantially increase the total value of its investments.  For more information, visit www.kiddcompany.com.