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BUYOUTS-Chicago buyout firm shops Citadel Plastics

* KeyBanc is running sales processBy Bernard VaughanNEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters-BUYOUTS) - Wind Point Partners, a private equity firm that has raised $2.8 billion since its founding in 1984, is putting Citadel Plastics Holdings Inc up for sale, said a source who has seen marketing materials provided by the bank handling the process.Citadel Plastics supplies products used in the automotive, construction, lawn and garden, and health-care markets. Based outside Philadelphia, it operates 12 manufacturing locations managed through subsidiaries in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America, according its Website. The company generates “a few hundred million” dollars in revenue, according to the source, who said KeyBanc Capital Markets is handling the sale for Wind Point.Chicago-based Wind Point launched Citadel Plastics in 2007 in partnership with Mike Fitzpatrick, a former president and COO of Rohm and Haas, a specialty materials company where he worked for some 30 years. Since then, the company and its subsidiaries have been on a perpetual buying spree, completing at least six acquisitions. In April 2009, Citadel expanded into fast-growing Brazil, buying operations in that country from Meridian Automotive Systems Inc.The auction comes as private equity professionals salivate over the prospect of buying companies that serve fast-growing emerging markets like Brazil and China. They are also increasingly pushing the U.S.-based companies they already own to expand there.Technology focused Silver Lake recently made its first investments in Brazil and China and is looking for deals in India. The Blackstone Group , meanwhile, encourages all of its companies to expand in China and other emerging markets, COO Tony James said last month at the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst conference.Wind Point has sold at least three other companies this year. Most recently, in August, it sold Marshfield DoorSystems Inc, a Marshfield, Wisconsin-based maker of commercial wooden doors and door components, to Masonite Worldwide Holdings Inc The firm has about 16 companies in its portfolio.The firm is investing from its seventh fund, a $915 million pool of capital closed in 2009. Wind Point typically invests $30 million to $150 million in companies in such sectors as business services, consumer products, health care and industrial products.Executives at Wind Point and Citadel did not return calls seeking comment.