Acquisition enhances the platform’s intersection safety products portfolio and will accelerate Eberle Design, Inc’s product innovation and development efforts
Los Angeles, CA, June 14, 2022 — Vance Street Capital (“Vance Street”), a Los Angeles based private equity firm, today announced it has acquired Eberle Design, Inc. (“EDI” or the “Company”), a leader in intersection safety products across North America. As part of the transaction, EDI will become part of Vance Street’s traffic and pedestrian safety ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) platform, which is comprised of Polara Enterprises (“Polara”) and Carmanah Technologies (“Carmanah”). Vance Street partnered with Polara in December 2021 and Carmanah in May 2022.
Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, EDI is a leading provider of highly engineered traffic safety products and industry-leading ITS technologies that enable safe and connected infrastructure. With the most technologically advanced and durable intersection safety devices on the market, EDI’s Advanced Traffic Controller (ATC) suite of products are the latest technological advancements to increase safety, cabinet reliability, functionality, and ease of maintenance across the United States and Canada.
Founded in 1980, EDI has more than four decades of electronics & engineering heritage and has been directly enabling smart and safe infrastructure across the traffic, parking & access, emergency response and rail segments. As part of the transaction, EDI’s existing management team will continue to lead the day-to-day business operations.
“I am extremely excited about this partnership because it opens up significant opportunities for EDI to further its position as the leader in intersection safety and mission critical ITS products for safe & connected infrastructure,” said Dr. John Shearer, President of EDI. “We believe the future is bright at EDI with Vance Street’s ongoing support. Polara, Carmanah and EDI all represent best in class businesses in the ITS space and we are excited to work together to provide leading traffic and pedestrian safety solutions.”
Steve Sandbo, Partner at Vance Street, added: “EDI has a long history of innovation and leadership within the intersection safety market and we are excited to be a part of EDI’s next chapter of growth in the space. We believe there is tremendous opportunity to support the Company’s commitment to intersection safety and ITS solutions and we are prepared to make significant investments at EDI to accelerate the business’s product innovation, organizational infrastructure and manufacturing excellence.”
“EDI is a great example of our efforts to invest organically as well as through M&A to build a leading ITS platform to support Vision Zero’s movement to eliminate traffic related fatalities through providing a holistic product and technology solution to municipalities and DoTs,” said John LeRosen, Partner at Vance Street.
Harris Williams and Paul Hastings LLP acted as financial and legal advisors to Vance Street Capital and Polara / Carmanah. Debt financing for the transaction was provided by Barings’ Global Private Credit and Manulife Investment Management. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.