Hillenbrand’s move to private ownership and its industrial portfolio

An industrial equipment company changes ownership

Hillenbrand agreed to a takeover by an affiliate of Lone Star Funds in October 2025, following several years of acquisitions and disposals across its industrial equipment portfolio. The proposed cash consideration was $32 for each common share, with the transaction carrying an enterprise value of approximately $3.8 billion. The manufacturer supplied processing equipment for durable plastics, food and recycling, alongside molding technologies. Its public-company structure included Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. By the time of the agreement, Hillenbrand had expanded its food-equipment operations and sold interests in several other businesses. The ownership transaction and portfolio changes were reported on October 17, 2025. Subsequent shareholder approval and completion occurred in 2026, with their own dates and conditions.

Hillenbrand announced the definitive agreement on October 15, 2025. The $32 offer represented an approximately 37% premium to the unaffected closing share price on August 12 and a 53% premium to the volume-weighted average price over the preceding 90-day period ending on that date. The board approved the transaction unanimously. Chairperson Helen Cornell said directors had considered several strategic alternatives and interest from multiple parties. Completion was initially expected by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder approval, regulatory clearances and other customary conditions. Evercore advised Hillenbrand financially, with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom providing legal counsel. Jefferies and UBS Investment Bank advised Lone Star financially, while Kirkland & Ellis served as its legal adviser.

Approval and completion have separate dates

Hillenbrand shareholders voted on the acquisition at a special meeting on January 8, 2026. Preliminary results indicated that about 99% of votes cast supported the transaction. Those favorable votes represented approximately 83% of the common shares outstanding as of the meeting’s November 28, 2025 record date. The two percentages therefore described different voting bases. At that stage, the company still expected the acquisition to close before the end of the first calendar quarter, subject to satisfaction or waiver of remaining conditions. Shareholders were to receive $32 in cash for each common share owned immediately before completion, without interest and subject to applicable withholding taxes. Final voting results were to be filed in a Form 8-K rather than treated as part of the preliminary tally.

Lone Star’s affiliate completed the acquisition on February 10, 2026. Hillenbrand continued to operate under its existing name, while its common stock ceased trading and was to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. The completed transaction retained the approximately $3.8 billion enterprise valuation. President and chief executive Kim Ryan said the company would continue serving customers and executing its plans with Lone Star. Lone Star chief executive Donald Quintin described the next stage as a partnership with Hillenbrand’s management team and investment in the business. The dated completion announcement followed the October agreement and January shareholder vote; it concerned the acquisition of Hillenbrand itself.

Batesville’s disposal preceded the takeover

Hillenbrand completed the sale of its Batesville business segment to an affiliate of LongRange Capital on February 1, 2023. The stated consideration was $761.5 million, subject to agreed closing adjustments, and included an $11.5 million subordinated note. At closing, the company expected approximately $530 million in after-tax net proceeds following customary adjustments and planned to apply those proceeds to existing debt. Hillenbrand retained its headquarters in Batesville, Indiana, in the United States. Ryan characterized the disposal as the completion of the company’s transition to an industrial focus. The sale concerned the death-care operating segment, while the continuing company concentrated on processing equipment and systems. Its remaining industrial activities served markets including durable plastics, food and recycling. The February 2023 closing date is separate from the earlier sale agreement and from Lone Star’s later acquisition of the parent company.

Food equipment entered through several acquisitions

Hillenbrand’s expansion in food processing included LINXIS Group in October 2022 and Peerless Food Equipment in December 2022, with Peerless acquired for $59 million. The company then bought Schenck Process’s Food and Performance Materials business, commonly abbreviated FPM, in September 2023. That operation joined Advanced Process Solutions, which supplied processing systems, equipment, aftermarket parts and services. The segment’s markets included plastics, food, chemicals and recycling. Ryan said combining the businesses would broaden the company’s offering and allow engineering, manufacturing and procurement practices to be shared. These acquisitions concerned equipment suppliers and process expertise. They extended the machinery portfolio rather than adding food brands for direct sale to consumers. Feeding, filtration, baking and bulk-material handling were among the processing activities associated with the acquired FPM operation.

FPM’s acquisition closed on September 1, 2023, at an enterprise value of approximately $730 million. The seller was Schenck Process Group, then a Blackstone portfolio company. FPM was headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, employed more than 1,300 people globally and served customers in over 150 countries. Approximately 85% of its revenue came from North America. Its business combined equipment design and manufacturing with service for feeding, filtration, baking and material-handling systems. At completion, Hillenbrand expected FPM’s full-calendar-year 2023 revenue to be about $540 million and EBITDA to be approximately $68 million. Those amounts were forecasts based on unaudited prospective information supplied by FPM. Its financial statements followed International Financial Reporting Standards, and the announced EBITDA definition reflected that accounting basis.

When Hillenbrand announced the FPM agreement in May 2023, it planned to fund the purchase with available cash and capacity under its revolving credit facility. The company projected net debt to adjusted EBITDA of approximately 3.2 times immediately after closing, with a plan to return to a target range of 1.7 to 2.7 times within 15 months. Its integration plan included about $20 million of anticipated cost synergies and a dedicated team supported by senior management. Hillenbrand expected the transaction to add to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year and to deliver a double-digit return on invested capital above its estimated cost of capital by year five. These were the company’s acquisition-stage objectives. They were distinct from purchase consideration, actual cash proceeds on disposals and subsequently reported operating results.

Milacron’s ownership split changed in 2025

Hillenbrand sold a majority interest in the Milacron injection molding and extrusion business to Bain Capital on March 31, 2025, for $287 million, subject to closing adjustments. Bain Capital took approximately 51% and full operational control; Hillenbrand retained about 49%. The business had formed part of Molding Technology Solutions. Hillenbrand expected approximately $250 million in after-tax net proceeds after customary adjustments and intended to use the money to reduce debt. The transaction covered the injection molding and extrusion operation rather than every business acquired with Milacron Holdings in 2019. Hillenbrand retained Mold-Masters and DME, while Cimcool had already been sold in 2020. Ryan said the new arrangement would allow Hillenbrand to concentrate on its core process and automation equipment for food, pharmaceutical and polymer markets while preserving a minority interest in Milacron.

TerraSource Holdings was another disposal in 2025. Hillenbrand and its majority-stake joint-venture partner completed the sale to Astec Industries on July 1. The total transaction purchase price was approximately $245 million, while Hillenbrand received about $115 million for its minority interest. The company applied its proceeds to debt reduction. The total price and the amount received by Hillenbrand describe different ownership scopes. This transaction also had a different structure from the Milacron sale: Hillenbrand divested its minority stake in TerraSource, whereas it retained a minority position in Milacron after transferring majority ownership and operational control to Bain Capital. Both portfolio actions were completed before the October agreement with Lone Star.

A changing portfolio affected the revenue comparison

Hillenbrand reported net revenue of $598.9 million for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2025, compared with $786.6 million a year earlier, a decline of 24%. Its pro forma comparison excluded the divested Milacron injection molding and extrusion business from the earlier period: on that basis, revenue fell 10% from $663 million. Advanced Process Solutions generated $507 million of quarterly revenue, while Molding Technology Solutions contributed $91.9 million. At June 30, net debt stood at $1.51 billion and liquidity was approximately $512 million, including $163 million in cash. The quarterly results used separate reported and pro forma comparisons.

The industrial portfolio spans several equipment families

Hillenbrand’s current brand portfolio groups its equipment activities into six names: Coperion Compounding & Extrusion, Coperion Material Handling, K-Tron Weighing & Feeding, Hillenbrand Food, Health & Nutrition, DME & Mold-Masters, and The Rotex Group. These operating-brand descriptions differ from the two financial reporting segments used in the 2025 quarterly results. Compounding and extrusion cover processing systems for plastics and other materials. Material handling includes pneumatic conveying, pulverizing and thermal processes, while K-Tron supplies feeding and weighing equipment. Food, Health & Nutrition brings together specialized processing and production technologies. DME and Mold-Masters serve mold technology and injection-molding applications. Rotex supplies industrial screening and separation equipment. Across these businesses, Hillenbrand identifies shared engineering, manufacturing and procurement processes, complementary application expertise, long-standing customer relationships and aftermarket services as common characteristics.

Coperion’s equipment scope includes compounding and extrusion systems, sorting, shredding and washing equipment, together with conveying, mixing and feeding technologies. The business supplies individual components as well as complete systems and plants. Its customer support extends to process development, spare parts, training and service. Coperion offers training for beginners and specialists, with online courses and, where available, instruction at customer facilities or its own training centers. Its global location network includes manufacturing, engineering and service capabilities. Product and application areas encompass plastics, plastics recycling, food extrusion, pharmaceutical processing and battery materials. The company’s equipment and service activities thus cover several stages of industrial processing, with separate offerings for machinery, bulk-material movement and feeding. These are descriptions of the operating business’s scope, rather than revenue or production-volume estimates for Hillenbrand as a whole.

Food, Health & Nutrition organizes its applications across food manufacturing and related process industries. Its listed food markets include alternative proteins, biscuits, cookies and crackers, bread and bakery products, breakfast cereals, cakes, desserts, confectionery, dairy, grain processing, ingredients, pet food, ready meals and snacks. Health and nutrition applications also include cosmetics, personal care, nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical products. The business offers equipment, control systems, engineering, project management and ongoing support, from raw-material handling through finished-product production. Those capabilities combine technologies from specialist equipment brands within the portfolio. For customers, the published offering encompasses both individual stages and integrated projects. The food-equipment activities acquired over several years now sit within this broader grouping of applications and process solutions, alongside the parent company’s plastics and other industrial equipment businesses.

Mold-Masters supplies hot runners, temperature controllers, auxiliary injection and co-injection systems for plastics processing. The business dates its brand history to 1963 and describes a customer base across 100 countries, supported by more than 2,100 employees. Its global headquarters are in Georgetown, Ontario, with regional headquarters identified in Baden-Baden, Kunshan and Coimbatore. Its service portfolio includes cleaning and refurbishment of molds, in addition to the equipment and control-system offering. DME’s separate focus is mold technology products; the two names are grouped together in Hillenbrand’s current portfolio. Their continued ownership was explicitly distinguished from the Milacron injection molding and extrusion disposal.

The operating model connects the businesses

Hillenbrand uses a common management framework called the Hillenbrand Operating Model. It brings together five practices: strategy, people, operational excellence, commercial excellence, and innovation and technology. The framework uses four steps, named Understand, Focus, Execute and Grow. The company describes strategy as an enterprise-wide process for sustaining competitive advantage, while its people practice covers attracting, developing and retaining employees. Operational excellence uses lean operating tools and continuous improvement; commercial excellence concerns customer experience and commercial practices. Innovation and technology covers new products and technological improvements. These are the company’s management practices and objectives, rather than a separate reporting segment or a promised financial return from the Lone Star acquisition.

Hillenbrand also sets out shared values across its operating brands. Win As One concerns collaboration and accountability across teams; Partner With Possibility emphasizes working with customers on technical problems. Make It Matter addresses conduct with employees, customers and suppliers, while Drive To Deliver focuses on execution and performance. The values sit alongside the operating model and the specialized engineering activities of the individual brands. Corporate ownership, ownership stakes in operating businesses and product responsibilities can consequently be described separately. For the transactions covered here, the principal distinctions are concrete dates, the business or shares being transferred, the stated valuation basis and the ownership retained after completion. The following chronology keeps those transaction records separate:

• February 1, 2023: Hillenbrand completed the disposal of the Batesville segment to a LongRange Capital affiliate.
• September 1, 2023: the Schenck Process Food and Performance Materials acquisition closed and the business joined Advanced Process Solutions.
• March 31, 2025: Bain Capital became Milacron’s majority owner, with Hillenbrand retaining approximately 49%.
• July 1, 2025: the TerraSource disposal completed; Hillenbrand received about $115 million from the broader transaction.
• October 15, 2025: Hillenbrand announced its definitive agreement with a Lone Star affiliate.
• January 8 and February 10, 2026: shareholders approved the proposed acquisition, followed by completion and cessation of public trading.

Lone Star’s investment activities extend across private equity, credit and real estate. At completion, the firm identified its principal office as London in the United Kingdom. Since its first fund in 1995, it had organized 25 private equity funds with approximately $95 billion in aggregate capital commitments.