Ada manufacturer Burke Porter Group acquired by New York investment firm

Ada manufacturer Burke Porter Group acquired by New York investment firm

A New York investment firm has acquired Burke Porter Group Co., an Ada-based producer of automated diagnostic, testing and production equipment for the life science, automotive, aerospace and other specialty industrial markets.

AEA Investors’ Middle Market Private Equity bought Burke Porter Group from Hong Kong-based China Everbright Ltd.’s CEL Global Investment Fund LP, which acquired a controlling stake in the company in 2015 for $90 million. Through the partnership with CEL Global Investment, Burke Porter Group was transformed “into a leading global platform of automation solutions,” according to an announcement on the sale to AEA Investors.

Terms of the deal with AEA Investors were undisclosed.

Burke Porter Group, founded in 1953, operates in 45 locations worldwide and has more than 1,500 employees and 21 production facilities.

Soon after its 2015 sale to China Everbright Ltd., Burke Porter Group — under CEO David DeBoer — went on a strategic acquisition tear to acquire both U.S. and overseas manufacturers to expand the company’s range of products. The company since then has acquired several more automation firms. 

AEA Investors was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon and Harriman families and S.G. Warburg & Co. as an investor for a group of industrial family offices. The investment firm has about $17 billion in invested and committed capital with offices in New York, Stamford, Conn., San Francisco, London, Munich and Shanghai.