Chase Manhattan Capital Corp, the private equity investing arm of Chase Manhattan Corp., has acquired a majority stake in U.S. Electronics Component Corp., for $18 million.
Chase said the acquisition was carried out through a newly formed small business investment company, USECC Acquisition Co.
Bob Egan, a principal at Chase Capital, declined to disclose the exact stake Chase has acquired but said it was "more than 50%."
The deal was done in partnership with Chatfield Dean & Co., which initiated the acquisition and acted as financial adviser.
U.S. Electronics, based in Port Jefferson, N.Y., designs, manufactures, and markets cable television remote-control units and auxiliary equipment.
Chase said it had garnered $215 million in revenue from equity investments last year. Like other big money center banks, it has gained a steady stream of earnings from such investments.
"We've had extraordinary success and we're trying to make it a consistent contributor (to earnings)," Mr. Egan said.
Other banks are also heavily involved in equity investments. Citicorp, for example, posted its best ever annual results from equity investments in 1994 with $365 million in pretax gains from venture capital, compared with $143 million in 1993.
"It's been an important and continuing contributor to our earnings," said Citicorp spokesman John Morris.
Since 1986, Chase Capital has invested more than $500 million, primarily in middle market companies.
