Venture Metals acquires Indianapolis nonferrous processor

Mill Rock Capital Management LP, a private investment firm based in New York City, has announced that its affiliates have made a strategic investment in Dallas-based Venture Metals LLC and SI Metallics LLC in partnership with management. Mill Rock reports that Venture has acquired Versatile Processing Group Inc. (VPG), which is based in Indianapolis. 

The transaction combines two U.S. metal recycling solutions providers of comparable size to create a platform with annual revenues of about $700 million, according to a news release from Mill Rock Capital Management. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Venture is owned and operated by CEO Mike Uhrick and President Mark Chazanow. The company provides high-touch recycling solutions to the industrials, manufacturing, energy and metals sectors and supplies high-quality refined nonferrous and ferrous metals to domestic and international markets. 

Versatile Processing Group serves as an industrial processor of nonferrous metals, servicing the copper manufacturing, electric utility and general industries. The company specializes in recycling nonferrous materials, including copper, brass, aluminum, zinc, tin, silicon and nickel products sourced from a diverse base of suppliers, with a particular expertise in difficult-to-process units. Services provided include wire and cable chopping, de-tinning and de-oiling, laboratory analysis and logistics. 

The combined company will operate six processing facilities. Two of those facilities will be in Dallas and one facility will be in Des Plaines, Illinois; Houston; Nabb, Indiana; and Wills Point, Texas. The facilities are located in close proximity to customers as well as port and rail access points, Mill Rock reports in a news release announcing the acquisition. The combined organization will be led by Uhrick and Chazanow and the integrated executive teams of both organizations, supported by more than 200 associates. Through the transaction, senior management of both companies invested in partnership with Mill Rock. 

“The Venture team and I are excited to join forces with VPG,” Uhrick says. “VPG is a well-respected company with committed associates, a high-quality management team, specialized processing capabilities and robust infrastructure. We are excited about the growth opportunities of the combined platform and the enhanced capabilities it will provide to all our loyal customers."

“Access to Venture's processing capabilities and global consumer reach represents a significant opportunity for VPG's customers. The transaction will allow us to serve them across a fuller range of metals, while allowing them access to our distribution channels worldwide,” Chazanow adds.

Sharma Rao, a senior principal at Mill Rock, will be joining the company in the role of executive vice president of business development. Rao has managed global metal supply chains at GE Aviation and Rolls-Royce, and was most recently the head of Metals and Strategy at Arconic Inc. In addition, Wayne Hale, Charles Heskett, Adi Pekmezovic, William Plummer and Christopher Whalen of Mill Rock have joined Venture’s board of directors in connection with the transaction. 

Houlihan Lokey, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Octant Partners and Milbank LLP advised Mill Rock on the transaction. Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC and Locke Lord LLP advised Venture. KeyBanc Capital Markets and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP advised VPG.