Service Centers

Material Sciences Corp. Acquired by Sky Island Capital
Written by Sandy Williams
May 14, 2019
Material Sciences Corp., a producer of advanced materials and specialty coated metals, announced that private equity firm Sky Island Capital has purchased majority control of the company.
“Bringing in the Sky Island team will allow us to be more aggressive with add-on acquisitions and continue to grow the company,” said MSC CEO Pat Murley. “We have worked with several of the Sky Island team members in the past where we had tremendous success growing the business through add-on acquisitions. We are excited to work with them again to reinvigorate those efforts.”
Murley is also a partner and co-founder of Sky Island Capital and responsible for overseeing operations at Sky Island Capital portfolio companies. Material Sciences Corp. is the first acquisition by Sky Island Capital.
“We are extremely excited to partner with the MSC team again. As we looked for our first deal at Sky Island, we could not pass up on the opportunity to work with such a talented team and quality company that we are deeply familiar with from our prior management of the company,” remarked Jack Waterstreet, the Managing Partner of Sky Island. “MSC has had spectacular historical performance, but we firmly believe that its best days are ahead given several organic and add-on acquisition growth opportunities.”
Material Sciences Corp. produces advanced materials and specialty coated metals that are engineered to address lightweighting, noise, vibration, and harshness, corrosion, architectural, and aesthetic needs for a wide variety of end markets including transportation, building products, packaging, and consumer goods. Headquartered in Detroit, Mich., Material Sciences has production facilities in Elk Grove Village, Ill., East Chicago, Ind., Walbridge and Canfield, Ohio, and Toronto, Ontario.
Sky Island Capital is a middle market private equity firm based in Dallas, Texas. The limited partnership, formed in 2019, makes control investments in strategically viable North American manufacturing companies that exhibit transformational upside potential.

Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Service Centers

Steel Summit: Service center CEOs share straight talk on markets, customers, future
The chief executives from Majestic Steel, Olympic Steel, and Worthington Steel swapped notes on inventory discipline, customer trust, and the race to turn AI from hype into results.

Steel Summit: Analysts say demand likely to struggle until 2027
Steel industry analysts at this year's SMU Steel Summit said they see lackluster demand through this year and next.

Varsteel acquires Reliable Tube and Spartan Metal Processing
Varsteel Ltd. announced two new strategic acquisitions. The Canadian service center stated that the acquisitions position it to meet a wider range of steel product needs.

Steel Summit: Reliance CEO eyes potential M&A in Mexico, highlights tech plans
Karla Lewis, president and CEO of Reliance Inc., told attendees of SMU’s Steel Summit 2025 that North America’s largest service center company is eyeing strategic opportunities in Mexico.

Galvanized steel prices slip while demand remains flat: HARDI
Galvanized steel prices dipped to ~$48/hundredweight in August from the $50-59/hundredweight range during the month of July.