Brookfield sells Canadian bathtub maker Maax to American Bath Group

MONTREAL – Brookfield Asset Management is selling Canadian bathtub supplier Maax to the American Bath Group for an undisclosed price.

The Quebec-based company founded 47 years ago will maintain its production operations as a division of the Tennessee company and continue to be headed by CEO Mark Gold.

It has 1,200 employees at eight plants, including three in Quebec, one elsewhere in Canada and four in the U.S., along with three North American distribution centres.

A company spokesman said that for now the two companies will operate independently.

Maax was purchased in 2008 by a division of Brookfield for about $270 million while it was under court protection from creditors at the height of the U.S. housing crisis.

The company went public in 1987 and had 24 factories as of 2004 when it was sold by the founding family for $640 million including debt to a private equity group headed by J.W. Childs Associates of Boston and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.