American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC): An Investment Company Helping Underperforming Businesses

Founded in 1996, American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a global industrial group that helps underperforming businesses to revitalize their operations.  AIAC is a privately held investment groupwith an investment portfolio consisting of manufacturing and distribution businesses in 24 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia. It aims to build enduring businesses through industrial investment and management by purchasing the units of large multinational public companies as well as equity and debt of privately held companies, then managing their operational turnaround so that they can survive and thrive in the long run.

AIAC and its affiliates have invested in businesses across most industrial sectors, including rail, automotive, aerospace, defense, mining, oil& gas, power generation, packaging, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment. As a manufacturing and distribution-focused group, AIAC provides financial solutions and credibility to struggling companies with a long-term mission to build enduring and flourishing businesses.

Deal Sourcing and Criteria

·         As a global industrial group, the company acquires underperforming and non-core businesses in the manufacturing and distribution sectors across the world.

·         AIAC acquires businesses from sellers ranging from private companies to multinational corporations. 

·         The group aims to provide support and solutions to underperforming businesses struggling with financial commitment with secured and subordinated loans. 

·         AIAC works with investment bankers, corporate development professionals, independent sponsors, lawyers, accountants,  and other individuals who bring new investment opportunities.

·         AIAC review every opportunity it receives on a case-by-case basis to seek the right investment opportunities.  It responds rapidly to new situations.

·         In addition to purchasing and acquiring business units of public and private companies, AIAC also purchases the equity and debt of private companies

Global pandemic sparks high demand for paper produced at northern Manitoba mill.

 Nearly five years ago, the kraft paper mill in The Pas, Manitoba was about to be shut down. But today, it is running in high gear, making and delivering paper for packaging to customers all over the world.  Indeed, the product is in high demand during the global pandemic.

In August 2016, It’s owner, Tolko Industries, announced it was closing its kraft paper mill in The Pas, a town in Northern Manitoba with a population of 5,513. As a result of the shut down, 332 mill workers would be instantly unemployed, along with hundreds more loggers, truckers, and service industry workers that depended on the town’s largest employer. 

Leonard M. Levie, the founder and chairman of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation, led the exploration, negotiation and purchase of Tolko's paper mill after it announced its intention to shut down it in 2016.Canadian Kraft Paper Industries was born.  He stated, “This was among the most challenging acquisitions and turnaround executions we have ever attempted worldwide.  It was an excruciatingly complex, heated, multilateral negotiation with corporate, union and non-union labor, town, provincial, federal, and First Nations stakeholders, each wielding an effective veto over the salvation of the plant. It was an apt test of AIAC’s analytic and negotiating skills.”He added, “The post-acquisition turnaround management was similarly tough, involving a retooling of the management team and business plan.”Within a year of acquisition, the mill was fully turned around, producing record profits in 2018 and 2019.  Then Covid hit. 

The company’s leadership, in cooperation with the union and non-union workforce, and the town of The Pas, decided to keep the business safely running throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  The pandemic hit the entire province of Manitoba hard.  Nevertheless, the mill rapidly instituted new, rigorous safety protocols and practices and continued to produce northern Manitoba products around the clock, seven days a week. 

Kraft paper manufactured at the Canadian Kraft Paper mill is used to manufacture bags for commodities such as sugar, flour, pet food, and cement.  It is also used for the packaging used for deliveries arriving on doorsteps around the world as online shopping has become increasingly popular, especially during the pandemic. Quarantines, social distancing and isolation also led to a rapid rise in pet ownership, which stimulated pet food sales, anda spike in the demand for pet food packaging. On top of that, a migration of plastic to paper packaging, due to environmental concerns surrounding plastic, further boosted sales of Canadian Kraft’s product.

Trees that are used to produce Kraft paper only grow in northern Manitoba. Slow-growing trees mature over a long period of time, making the tree fibers among the strongest on earth.

Fiber strength is much higher than that of the fiber produced from trees in the southern U.S. In fact, only a few places in North America and Europe produce unbleached Kraft paper like what the mill in the Pas produces.

Leonard M. Levie stated “It has often been said ‘success has many fathers, yet failure is an orphan.’ In our case, success has been the direct result of the shared vision, sacrifice, dedication and passion of the Canadian Kraft Paper Industries family, the great people of The Pas and the Northern Manitoba region, and First Nations. We are a great team.”

Who is Leonard M. Levie? What does Leonard M. Levie do?

Leonard M. Levie is the Chairman and Founder of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC).In 1996, he established this firm to acquire underperforming and non-core manufacturing and distribution companies.

    

What does Leonard M. Levie do?

Apart from being the Chairman of AIAC and its subsidiaries, Leonard M. Levie is Chairman of the AIAC Foundation, Inc.  He has lectured at the Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, the Turnaround Management Association, and the Association for Corporate Growth.

He has been a panelist with Hon. Fabius Laurent, the former Prime Minister of France, on Investing in France, at the Consulate General of France in New York in 2015.

In addition to other roles, he is also an active member of various councils, societies, and clubs, such as the Trilateral Commission, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations Legacy Society, the Yale CEO Summit, the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society of Harvard Law School, the Copper Club, Chatham House, the American Red Cross Legacy Society, and many more.

Which types of underperforming businesses does Leonard M. Levie deal with?

AIAC and its affiliates hold controlling interests in companies which serve the following sectors: packaging materials, pharmaceuticals, power generation, medical devices, mining, automation, food and beverage, aviation &aerospace, defense, truck, rail, marine, pulp and paper, construction, and more.

Mr. Levie founded AIAC with the principle of acquiring underperforming companies and helping them to survive and flourish. Since the inception of AIAC, his firm has purchased and operated manufacturing units of some of the largest corporations in the world, including Boeing, Johnson Controls, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Merck, Pfizer, GSK, and Siemens.

In addition to purchasing manufacturing units of large multinational public companies, his firm also buys the equity and debt of privately held companies. AIAC is a conservatively capitalized group, with permanent equity capital and no net debt.

Leonard Levie Revitalizes Failing Businesses Even in Hopeless Situations

Leonard M. Levie is the founder and chairman of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC).  An eternal optimist, has always believed that every cloud has a silver lining, provided that you look hard enough for it.  His team at AIAC has rapidly develop and implement the key operational and financial actions to revitalize struggling manufacturing and distribution businesses.

Businesses that are on the verge of falling apart often close down because they don’t have sufficient human and financial capital to develop and execute an effective turnaround plan.  This typically results in the loss of hundreds and, sometimes, thousands of jobs for contractors and skilled and unskilled laborers, which can impact an entire community. 

Over the past quarter century, AIAC has identified, acquired, and turned around a large collection of underperforming manufacturing and acquisition companies located on four continents.

One of the most dramatic examples where Leonard M. Levie and his team at AIAC have saved a declining businesses include the case of Craft Paper Industries Ltd.: 

Tolko Industries, a multi-billion dollar revenue, privately held, timber, paper & pulp mill group based in Canada, announced the closure of its kraft paper manufacturing facility located in The Pas, Manitoba, Canada, located 835 miles northeast of Minneapolis, MN in August 2016.  As a result of the impending closure, 300 woodland contractors and 330 union employees faced immediate unemployment. Despite this crisis, which the national Canadian media declared to be a hopeless situation, Mr. Levie saw an interesting opportunity for the revival and revitalization of the business and purchased the mill just three weeks before the announced shutdown date.

Before the acquisition, the paper mill had negligible paper orders along with a fleeing customer and supplier base. But less than 1 year after its acquisition, the mill, rebranded as Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Ltd., started humming again.  Today, the mill profitably produces and exports worldwide the highest quality grades of kraft paper for a myriad of blue chip corporate clients. AIAC accomplished this by designing and implementing a bold turnaround plan which combined revenue enhancement, cost containment, massive equipment investment.

The dramatic saga of Canadian Kraft Paper Industry is hardly unique for AIAC.  This turnaround story is repeated at dozens of other AIAC companies, including Champlain Cable, Titanium Fabrication, Euro foil, Arn prior Aerospace, Super Alloy Manufacturing, Vermont Aerospace, Be Link, Malaga Aerospace, Bradford Space, Neotiss, D2A, Shiro Group, Avara Pharmaceuticals, Combiwear Parts, Consolidated Industries, Craft Machine Works, Epalia, Forte Micro, IP3 Plastics, Lenape Forged Products, MG, Umbilical International, and Union Metals. Each has a similar story to tell.  Each of these companies was universally regarded by their industry and community as hopelessly insolvent, unprofitable, and unfixable.  Each was turned around by the AIAC turnaround team. AIAC operates like a combination of a close knit family and a vigorous university debating society.  The Socratic method prevails.  Turnaround target companies’core operational and financial issues, and the appropriate turnaround action steps to address them are endlessly discussed internally before an acceptably high probability turnaround strategy is set.  All opinions are welcome and passions run high.  New information on the target company’s products, markets, customers, supplier is instantly considered, and hotly debated.  Turnaround strategies are immediately adjusted, and 180 degree pivots in strategic direction are often the result. The plan is then implemented by selected AIAC turnaround executives, based on their specific track record, geographic location, and language skills. 

No one attempting such corporate high wire acts is perfect, and enduring the unrelenting ire of disappointed stake holders is part of the job description. In such cases, stones are hurled by local press and politicians.  This is particularly true when a turnaround necessarily requires a strategic, surgical divestment or dissolution of a non-viable-subsidiary, in order to save a much larger core, parent business which supports thousands of jobs. Turnaround managers at AIAC know that designing and implementing a revitalization plan that saves the most jobs is as important as transforming losses into profits. 

 AIAC’s turnaround track record is stunning, with an enviable 25 year, global win/loss ratio rumored to be 20 to 1.  This has produced a compounded annual return on invested capital that is unadvertised and closely guarded.  AIAC has never raised capital from limited partners and has no plans to do so.  AIAC now consists of 78 manufacturing and distribution sites in 24 countries on 4 continents.

Leonard M. Levie- Chairman and Founder of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation and the AIAC Foundation Inc.

American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) was established in 1996 by Leonard M. Levie.  The company has reached a quarter century milestone with 78 manufacturing and distribution affiliates in 19 countries, but the passion to do more still exists.

Who is Leonard M. Levie?

Leonard M. Levie is the Chairman of AIAC and each of its subsidiaries or affiliates, which Arnprior Aerospace, Avara Pharmaceutical Services, Be Link, Bradford Space, Champlain Cable, D2A, Euro foil, Forte Micro, GeCoe, Malaga Aerospace Defense Electronics Systems, Titanium Fabrication Corporation. Vermont Aerospace, and Umbillicals International, among others.  

Mr. Levie has been a guest lecturer at the Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, the Association for Corporate Growth, and the Turnaround Management Association.

In addition, Leonard M. Levie is the Director of the Forest Products Association of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Member of the Alexander Graham Bell Legacy Society of the National Geographic Society.

What Leonard M. Levie and his company do?

Simply said, the AIAC is an Industrial manufacturing-focused group. Leonard M. Levie with his AIAC team acquires manufacturing companies from the largest corporations in the world. The company works on the principle of

“Acquiring under-performing companies and helping those companies to survive and thrive.”

Some of the units that AIAC has purchased and operated are:

•    Ahlstrom
•    Astrellas
•    Boeing
•    Carlyle Group
•    Constellium
•    GlaxoSmithKline
•    Jabil Circuit
•    Johnson Controls
•    Kodak
•    Lockheed Martin
•    Merck
•    Moog
•    Northrop Grumman
•    Novelis
•    Pfizer
•    Raytheon Technologies
•    Rexel Group
•    The Riverside Company
•    Sandvik
•    Siemens
•    SSC
•    Suez Group
•    Tolko
•    Visteon

Other than these units of multinational public companies, AIAC purchases the equity and debt of privately held companies.

Under the guidance of Leonard M. Levie, the portfolio of AIAC consists of 78 manufacturing and distribution sites with over 8,500 employees in 24 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company owns over 6.5 million square feet of industrial real and holds the exclusive, perpetual license to responsibly manage 22 million acres of prime Canadian Timberland, a landmass equivalent to the size of Hungary. The company’s annual revenue exceeds $1.6 billion.

Why is it beneficial to transact with AIAC?

•    Completes transactions in as short as 15 to 30 days, including due diligence and documentation
•    Utilizes an internal team to originate, analyze and execute acquisition transactions
•    Executes all standard non-disclosure agreements and conducts its due diligence quietly, without disruption to target company’s operations.
•    Offers a high probability of closing to sellers
•    Accepts most asset sale and share sale documents, with no or few changes
•    Facilitates the full transfer of all liabilities, contingent and non-contingent
•    Doesn’t require financing from external parties
•    Offers global synergies to acquired companies in areas likes sales, marketing, raw materials and equipment procurement, industrial engineering, accounting, legal, IT, HR, and insurance.

American Industrial Acquisition Corporation, under the leadership of Leonard M. Levie, helps non-core manufacturing and distribution business owners to survive and thrive in the industry.

Leonard Levie: The Master of the Turnaround

Leonard Levie started the professional journey of his life by launching a New York-based investment company, American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) back in 1996. Since then, he and his firm have been helping businesses that others consider hopelessly unprofitable, over leveraged, or otherwise out of options. 

Who is Leonard Levie?

Leonard Levie is the Chairman and Founder of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation, the AIAC Foundation Inc., and AIAC subsidiaries & affiliates, including Arnprior Aerospace, Avara Pharmaceutical Services, BeLink Solutions, Bradford Space, Champlain Cable, Canadian Kraft Paper Industries, Combi Wear Parts, Consolidated Industries, D2A, Epalia, Eurofoil, IP3 Plastics, Lenape Forged Products, Malaga Aerospace, MG GmbH, Neotiss, Shriro Group, SuperAlloy, Titanium Fabrication, Umbillicals International, Vermont Aerospace,and numerous others.

Leonard Levie has been a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, The Association for Corporate Growth, and the Turnaround Management Association.  Mr. Levie has lectured on Investing in France, accompanying the former Prime Minister of France, Fabius Laurent, at the Consulate General of France in New York City in 2015. 

Mr. Levie is active in the non-profit world.  He is a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations Legacy Society, the Economic Club of New York, and the Yale CEO Summit.  He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Forest Products Association of Canada.  Individually or through the AIAC Foundation, Mr. Levie donates to a wide range of educational, cultural, and medical institutions worldwide. 

Under his guidance, the portfolio of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation now consists of 78 manufacturing and distribution sites. The portfolio companies of AIAC employ more than 8,500 sprawling in 24 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia.

According to Dun & Bradstreet, the corporate family tree of AIAC now consists of 22 subsidiaries and 13 branches. With the total revenue exceeding $1.6 billion, the parent company, AIAC, also owns an expansive industrial real estate portfolio of over 6.5 million square feet and also holds the exclusive, perpetual license for sustainably harvesting and managing 22 million acres of prime Canadian timberland, an area equivalent to the size of the state of Hungary.

AIAC has purchased companies from a Who’s Who of list of blue chip multinationals, including Allegion, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Boeing, Carlyle Group, Constellium, Electrolux, Melrose Plc./GKN Aerospace, Ingersoll Rand, Jabil Circuits, Johnson Controls, Kodak, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Moog, Northrop Grumman, Novelis, NXP Semiconductors, Pfizer, Promens, Raytheon Technologies, Rexel Group, Riverside Companies, Sandvik, Senior Plc., Suez Group, Tolko, and Visteon. 

AIAC’s portfolio constitutes a diverse collection of manufacturing, distribution, and natural resource companies serving most major industrial sectors, including automation, auto, truck, rail, marine, construction, defense, distribution, energy power generation, infrastructure, mining, packaging materials, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

AIAC’s winning investments have outnumbered its losers by 20 to 1. This enviable turnaround track record and its broad global reach have made AIAC a powerful magnet for distressed investment opportunities worldwide.  A steady stream of new acquisition opportunities are sourced by AIAC’s deal origination team, strategically located in most major international capitals.  These acquisition professionals have developed deep relationships with investment bankers, attorneys, accountants, consultants, senior strategic corporate development executives, and the economic development representatives of dozens of foreign governments.

To keep the process as stress-free and short as possible for the seller, AIAC professionals complete acquisitions with breathtaking speed, often as little as 15 to 30 days, including due diligence and documentation.

How Leonard M. Levie Built American Industrial Acquisition Corporation

In 1996, Leonard M. Levie established an investment company in New York named American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC). Its primary aim was to invest in manufacturing firms which served the automotive, aerospace, rail, appliance, power generation, mining, oil and gas, packaging, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical sectors.

About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation:

AIAC and its subsidiaries and affiliates is a privately owned industrial investment portfolio with a long-term goal of building lasting businesses. Today the industrial group consists of 73 manufacturing and distribution sites with over 10,000 employees in 19 countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. The total annual revenues of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation exceed $1.5 billion.

AIAC owns over 6.5 million square feet of industrial real estate and holds the exclusive, perpetual license to harvest 22 million acres of Canadian timberland. AIAC and its affiliates have purchased and operated manufacturing units of:

• Ahlstrom 
• Boeing 
• Carlyle Group
• GSK
• Jabil Circuit
• Johnson Controls
• Kodak
• Lockheed Martin
• Merck
• Moog
• Northrop Grumman
• Pfize
• Raytheon Technologies
• The Riverside Company
• Siemens
• Tolko Industries

About Leonard M.Levie:

Leonard M. Levie is the Founder and Chairman of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation and the AIAC Foundation Inc.

He has served as a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School, The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, the Association for Corporate Growth, and the Turnaround Management Association.

Leonard Levie is a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Council of Foreign Relations Legacy Society, the Economic Club of New York, the Yale CEO Summit, and the Chairman's Legacy Society of Atlantic Council. He was also a member of the COVID-19 Advisory Board for the Citizens Committee for New York City.

He is the Director of the Forest Products Association of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and Member of the Alexander Graham Bell Legacy Society of the National Geographic Society.

Leonard Levie is also a member of the:

• Oliver Wendell Holmes Society of Harvard Law School
• The John C. Whitehead Society of Harvard Business School
• The 1861 Circle of MIT
• The Founding Grant Society of Stanford University
• The Johns Hopkins Legacy Society
• Yale Legacy Partners, and
• The Legacy Society of the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton University.
• Leonard Levie has also been a member of the following clubs:
• The Explorers Club
• The Army-Navy Club of Washington D.C.
• The East India Club of London
• The Rand Club of Johannesburg
• The Harvard Faculty Club

Leonard Levie is a member in good standing the Harvard Business School Clubs  of New York, Silicon Valley, India, Singapore, Japan, South Africa, London, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain. 

He has also been a member of the following institutes and societies:

• Chatham House (London)
• Policy Exchange (London)
• Japan Society (New York)
• The Asia Society (New York)
• The Italy-America Chamber of Commerce
• The Goethe Institute (Munich)
• The Canadian International Council (Toronto)
• American Red Cross Legacy Society
• The William Society of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
  
• The Masterpiece Society of the Louvre Museum

In 2017, 2018, and 2019, Leonard M. Levie was awarded the Turnaround Management Association's Turnaround of the Year for reviving Canadian Kraft Paper Industries, Vermont Aerospace Industries, and Union Metal Industries.