Quarton Partners Advises Freestone Partners And Sunbelt Steel In Its Sale To Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE: RS)

BIRMINGHAM, Mich., Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Quarton Partners is pleased to announce the sale of Sunbelt Steel Texas, LLC ("Sunbelt"), a value-added distributor of specialty alloy steel bar and heavy-wall tubing products to the oil and gas industry, to Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE: RS).  Sunbelt was a portfolio company of Freestone Partners, LLC ("Freestone"). Quarton Partners acted as the exclusive advisor to Sunbelt and Freestone.  The transaction closed on October 1, 2012.

David H. Hannah, Chairman and CEO of Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. commenting on the transaction, "We are excited to add Sunbelt Steel Texas, LLC to the Reliance Family of Companies. Sunbelt increases our growing exposure to the energy market in high end, niche products serving customers across multiple oil and gas well drilling types, including vertical, horizontal, directional, and deepwater drilling applications. Sunbelt's in-house processing services include deep hole drilling, straightening, and saw cutting with the ability to manufacture heavy-wall tubing from solid bar. We look forward to continuing Sunbelt's growing presence in their specialty markets."

Based in Houston, Texas, Sunbelt ( www.sunbeltsteel.com) is one of the premier value added distributors of specialty alloy steel bar and heavy-wall tubing products to the oil and gas industry. Sunbelt was founded in 1986 and has an additional location in Lafayette, Louisiana as well as a sales presence in Salt Lake City, Utah, Dallas, Texas and Alberta, Canada. Sunbelt will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Steel and Aluminum Co. Current management will remain in place with Michael Kowalski continuing as President of Sunbelt.

Based in Los Angeles, California, Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. ( www.rsac.com) is the largest metals service center company in North America.  Through a network of more than 220 locations in 38 states and Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, the U.A.E. and the United Kingdom, the Company provides value-added metals processing services and distributes a full line of over 100,000 metal products to more than 125,000 customers in a broad range of industries. The Company was named to the 2012 " Fortune 500" List and the 2012 Fortune List of " The World's Most Admired Companies."

ABOUT QUARTON PARTNERS

Quarton Partners ( www.quartonpartners.com), headquartered in Birmingham, Michigan, is a specialty investment banking firm, serving privately held and publicly traded companies, as well as private equity firms. Quarton Partners assists its clients with mergers and acquisitions, private capital raising, and other financial advisory services. Its principals have successfully completed hundreds of engagements in a wide variety of industries across the U.S. and throughout the world. 

SOURCE Quarton Partners

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