Bain Capital to Buy Parts Maker TI Automotive

Bain Capital has agreed to buy TI Automotive, a nearly 100-year-old auto parts maker, after two earlier attempts to strike a deal.

Terms of the agreement, which was announced on Tuesday, were not disclosed. The current owners include Oaktree Capital Management, which acquired the company with other investors in 2007.

Bain Capital, the private equity giant based in Boston, has invested in a number of auto parts suppliers over the years, including Sensata Technologies of the Netherlands and FTE Automotive of Germany. The firm had tried in 2011 and in 2013 to buy TI Automotive, but the sides could not agree on price, according to media reports.

The auto parts sector has proved a fertile ground for deal-making. Last year, the Blackstone Group paid $5.4 billion for the Gates Corporation, a maker of industrial and automotive parts. A couple months later, the auto safety parts maker TRW Automotive said it would be acquired by the German auto parts maker ZF Friedrichshafen in a $13.5 billion deal.

TI Automotive, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., makes equipment for handling brake fluid and fuel, including tubing, pumps and tanks. It has facilities in 29 countries. Bain Capital said the company’s current management team would continue to lead it.

The company traces its history to 1919, when it was founded as Tube Investments in Birmingham, England, according to its website. It merged with Smiths Industries in 2000, and the current TI Automotive was spun off the following year.

Bain Capital expects its acquisition to close by the middle of this year. The firm said a majority of TI Automotive shareholders had promised to support the deal.

TI Automotive is taking legal advice from Weil, Gotshal, & Manges. The company’s current owners are being advised by Blackstone Advisory Partners and the law firm Latham & Watkins. The nonexecutive directors are taking advice from Lazard.

Bain Capital is getting financial advice from Goldman Sachs and UBS and legal advice from Ropes & Gray.