Collins Industries enters into merger agreement

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Collins Industries, the largest producer of Type A school buses in North America, has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Steel Partners, a private investment partnership in New York.

Steel Partners is purchasing Collins in affiliation with American Industrial Partners, an operationally focused private equity firm.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2006. Collins Industries is the parent company of two school bus manufacturing concerns — Collins Bus Corp. in Hutchinson and Mid Bus Inc. in Bluffton, Ohio.

Collins Industries is also a leading manufacturer of ambulances, terminal trucks and sweepers used in the road construction industry.

The company employs approximately 1,000 people in six plants comprising 1 million square feet of combined space.