Audax Private Equity acquires RelaDyne

RelaDyne has been acquired by Audax Private Equity, a private equity firm based in Boston, Mass., U.S.A., with more than USD 10 billion in assets under management.

RelaDyne is an industry leading lubricant, fuel and DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) distributor, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A. RelaDyne was formed in 2010 by the combination of four industry leaders – Mid-Town Petroleum, Inc., Oil Distributing Company, The Hurt Company, Inc. and Pumpelly Oil Company.

Since its formation in 2010, RelaDyne has completed more than 20 acquisitions and has expanded to more than 40 locations, servicing customers in 45 U.S. states and 22 nations.

With this new partnership, RelaDyne will be focused on accelerating its acquisitions both in the number of deals and size of companies to be acquired.

“RelaDyne and its team of 750+ associates are excited to be partnering with Audax,” states Larry Stoddard, president and CEO of RelaDyne. “They bring great expertise and funding focused on distribution and will help us meet the long-term goals as we continue to build this great company.”

“We are proud of the business we have built over the last 6 years, however 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, as we have an aggressive partner that aligns with our mission to become a national platform for the distribution of lubricants, fuel and reliability services.”

Audax Private Equity is an integral part of Audax Group, an alternative asset management arm specializing in investments in middle market companies.

Since its founding in 1999, Audax has invested more than USD 3.5 billion in 97 platform and 493 add-on companies. Through its disciplined Buy & Build approach, Audax seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations and significantly increase equity value.

Terms of the transaction, which is scheduled to close on or before July 31, 2016, were not disclosed.