TEAM INC. Alvin, Texas; Revamped Lineup Pays Off For Supplier Of Industrial Repair Services.(THE NEW AMERICA)

Byline: MARILYN MUCH

Buyouts can be divided into two basic groups. If you're buying a growing company, the key is to maintain or accelerate that growth. If you're buying an ailing company, the key is bringing it back to health.

The latter chore was on Team Inc.'s to-do list after it gobbled up Cooperheat-MQS at a bankruptcy auction in August 2004.

Team specializes in high-pressure, high-temperature piping systems. Its services include leak repair, valve repair and emissions control.

Slightly more than half of its business is with the refining and petrochemical industries. The rest is split among power and pipeline fields and heavy industries such as steel.

The company paid $35 million plus the assumption of $1.7 million in letters of credit for nearly all the assets of Cooperheat and its parent, International Industrial Services.

Cooperheat had been a major provider of heat treating, a service used to restore the metallurgical flexibility of metal following welding. It also was big in non-destructive testing inspection, which is the inspection of a vessel or piping for potential defects.