QSA Holdings Limited

The Company

QSA Global Inc. (QSA or the Company), headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, the U.S. subsidiary of QSA Holdings Limited, is the leading global provider of nondestructive testing systems under the widely recognized SENTINEL™ brand name and of purpose-designed, sealed, and encapsulated radiation sources used in process control devices and analytical instrumentation, including for oil well logging. The Company’s products help ensure the safe and reliable performance of industrial processes and are also utilized for the precise measurement of thickness, density, moisture, and porosity, as well as flaw detection and elemental analysis.

The Situation

QSA Holdings Limited, which is owned by CIP Industries LP Incorporated (CIPI), an investment holding company owned by funds advised by Coller Capital Limited (Coller), a leading global investor in private equity secondaries, was seeking an exit from its investment to a prospective party that would continue to capitalize on QSA’s established market-leading position, strong customer base, and significant available growth opportunities. CIPI had acquired QSA in late 2005 as part of a portfolio acquisition of noncore businesses from AEA Technologies.

The Transaction

KPMG Corporate Finance conducted a competitive, controlled-auction process that generated interest from several potential counterparties that could meet the objectives of the shareholders. KPMG Corporate Finance coordinated management meetings and due diligence, and assisted the owners in successfully negotiating a sale of QSA to Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW), a $16.2 billion revenue diversified and value-added manufacturer of highly engineered components and industrial systems and consumables. ITW consists of approximately 825 business units in 52 countries and employs some 60,000 people.