CHS Capital™ a Chicago-based private equity firm, completed the sale of Swank Audio Visuals, LLC to Kelso & Company. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Swank provides audio visual and event technology services to the hotel, resort, meeting and conference center industries.

Kelso & Company plans to merge Swank with another of its portfolio investments, PSAV® Presentation Services, a provider of audio visual equipment and services to the meeting and event industries. The combined company will be the industry’s single leading source of audio visual and event technology support.

CHS Capital purchased Swank in 2007 and worked closely with management to aggressively increase Swank's domestic market share, introduce new service offerings and expand its operations into the Middle East. These efforts resulted in Swank achieving record levels of revenues and EBITDA during CHS’ ownership.

"CEO Greg Diekemper and the Swank management team did an impressive job strategically growing Swank’s business and creating innovative service offerings," said Rich Lobo, Partner at CHS Capital. "The merger with PSAV will provide Swank's hotel partners with greater access to new technology as well as a deeper pool of highly-trained audio visual professionals."

"The value CHS has added during the last five years has been remarkable," said Greg Diekemper, CEO of Swank. "Under their guidance, we accomplished our growth objectives, including our first-ever acquisition, as well as expanded our hotel base dramatically."

Piper Jaffray & Co. served as lead advisor and Lincoln International LLC served as a co-advisor to CHS Capital and Swank.

CHS Capital is a Chicago-based private equity firm with 24 years of experience investing in the middle market. Through partnerships with strong management teams, CHS Capital accelerates earnings growth and drives value creation through human capital enhancements, performance improvement actions and strategic growth initiatives. Throughout its history, CHS Capital has made investments in over 390 businesses and invested $2.9 billion of capital. For additional information, please visit www.chsonline.com.