Antares Capital and American Capital, Ltd. announced they were co-lead arrangers of a $170 million unitranche facility to support the acquisition of Kele, Inc. by Snow Phipps Group, LLC.  Antares Capital acted as agent.  Kele is an independent distributor of peripheral control products used in building automation systems of commercial buildings in North America.   

Douglas Cannaliato, senior managing director at Antares Capital, said, "We're thrilled to be lead arranger of this financing for Snow Phipps, continuing our decade-long relationship with Kele.  We have a lot of confidence in management and a history of successful partnering with Snow Phipps."  

Ryan Brauns, managing director and Head of Sponsor Finance at American Capital, said, "We are delighted to have closed our second transaction with Snow Phipps in the last twelve months and were glad to partner with Antares to provide a joint execution."

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Memphis, TN, Kele supplies over 108,000 peripheral control products, including pressure controls, sensors, and control valves, that are critical components for commercial and industrial buildings to operate efficiently.  The products are used to detect and transmit information such as room temperature and humidity to building controllers, allowing building operators to manage internal environments, save on energy costs and keep expensive mechanical systems, such as large HVAC systems, running correctly. 

Sean Epps, Partner at Snow Phipps, said, "We appreciate the efforts of both the Antares and American Capital teams to support us in our acquisition of Kele.  We have enjoyed a long term relationship with Antares and are benefitting from a new relationship with American Capital and look forward to shared success and partnership with both in the future."

Antares Capital is the leading provider of financing solutions for middle-market, private equity-backed transactions with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Norwalk (Connecticut) and Toronto.  Antares has provided more than $120 billion in financing over the past five years, and was named 2014 lender of the Year by Mergers & Acquisitions. Antares also was recognized by Private Debt Investor and Private Equity International as 2013 Lender of the Year, North America and Mid-Cap Lender of the Year, North America, respectively.

American Capital, Ltd. is a publicly traded private equity firm and global asset manager.  American Capital, both directly and through its asset management business, originates, underwrites and manages investments in middle market private equity, leveraged finance, real estate, energy & infrastructure and structured products. 

Snow Phipps is a private equity firm focused on middle-market control investments.  With $1.5 billion of assets currently under management, Snow Phipps targets platform companies with enterprise values ranging from $100 million to $500 million.  The firm utilizes an operating partner model to invest across select industries and seek value creation through an operationally focused strategy.