Griffon Corporation closes AMES North America joint venture with ONCAP, narrows portfolio to garage doors and fans
The North American building products sector has been consolidating along product-line boundaries, as manufacturers shed adjacent operations to concentrate exposure on the housing cycle. Against that backdrop, Griffon Corporation…
Key takeaways
- Griffon Corporation completed the formation of a joint venture for its AMES North America business on June 9, 2026, receiving $100 million in cash, a $161.1 million second-lien PIK debt receivable, and a 43% equity stake valued initially at $118.6 million.
- The joint venture, named Veritage Brands, combines AMES North America with Venanpri's Bellota Tools, Corona, and Burgon & Ball businesses, with ONCAP affiliates holding 57% and Griffon holding 43% accounted for under the equity method.
- The divestiture is part of 2026 strategic actions to transform Griffon from a diversified industrial conglomerate into a company focused entirely on residential and commercial building products.
- Griffon's retained core comprises garage doors (Clopay, IDEAL, Holmes), rolling steel doors and grilles (Clopay, Cornell, Cookson), and ceiling fans (Hunter, Casablanca, Jan Fan).
- Griffon announced a strategic review of its AMES Australasia and United Kingdom operations on February 5, 2026, reaching a definitive agreement for those assets on June 8, 2026, without disclosed financial terms.
The North American building products sector has been consolidating along product-line boundaries, as manufacturers shed adjacent operations to concentrate exposure on the housing cycle. Against that backdrop, Griffon Corporation (NYSE: GFF), the largest manufacturer of garage doors and rolling steel doors in North America, confirmed in a recent SEC filing that it completed the formation of a joint venture for its AMES North America business on June 9, 2026, receiving $100 million in cash, a $161.1 million second-lien paid-in-kind debt receivable, and a 43% equity stake with an initial carrying value of $118.6 million.
Veritage Brands: structure of the new entity
The joint venture, named Veritage Brands, combines AMES North America with the Bellota Tools, Corona, and Burgon & Ball businesses of Venanpri, an ONCAP Management Partners-majority-owned portfolio company. Venanpri, together with other affiliates of ONCAP (the mid-market private equity arm of Onex Corporation, TSX: ONEX), holds 57% of Veritage. Griffon retains the remaining 43% and will account for the investment under the equity method. Veritage is managed as a Venanpri subsidiary.
Garage doors and ceiling fans as the remaining core
The filing frames the AMES divestiture as part of a series of 2026 strategic actions designed to complete Griffon's shift from a diversified industrial conglomerate into a company focused entirely on residential and commercial building products. The retained business centers on garage doors sold under the Clopay, IDEAL, and Holmes brands, rolling steel door and grille products under Clopay, Cornell, and Cookson for commercial and industrial customers, and ceiling fans under Hunter, Casablanca, and Jan Fan.
Griffon announced on February 5, 2026 a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives for its AMES Australasia and United Kingdom operations. A definitive agreement for those assets was announced on June 8, 2026, though the filing did not include the financial terms for that transaction.
The macro caveat: housing cycle and raw material exposure
The sector-wide read-through is direct. Garage door volumes track housing starts and remodeling activity, both sensitive to mortgage rates and the credit environment. Griffon's filing identifies steel, poly-chemicals, and glass as key raw material inputs and names tariffs explicitly as a potential drag on costs or availability. A more concentrated building products portfolio carries tighter correlation to those physical input flows than the former conglomerate structure did. On balance, the $161.1 million PIK debt receivable that Griffon holds from Veritage means the joint venture's financial performance feeds back to the parent's balance sheet independently of how the 43% equity stake is marked.
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