Acquisitions and Public Offerings
During
the 1970s, Albany International acquired paper machine clothing
companies in England, Brazil, and Norway, as well as overseas and
domestic manufacturing capabilities in paper machine auxiliary
equipment.
The Company continued to expand and modernize existing paper
machine clothing manufacturing operations, as well as investing in its
growing plastic products and industrial fabrics businesses and ventures.
In the United States, it acquired a leading textile research firm near
Boston, Massachusetts, now the home of Albany International Research Co.
Albany
International offered its stock to the public in 1972 and listed on the
New York Stock Exchange in July 1974.
 | The Albany International logo was adopted in 1972. |
In 1976, it moved its corporate
headquarters from the Felt Division location on Broadway to the newly
renovated Sage Estate, about a mile away.
In 1983, in order to
accommodate the Company's largest shareholder group, who wished to
diversify their holdings, management took the Company private in a
leveraged buy-out. Then, to reduce its newly acquired debt, all
operations not primarily serving the paper industry were sold, and the
Company again focused its resources on paper machine clothing and
auxiliary equipment. While a private company, it continued to invest
heavily in research and development and accelerate its capital
expenditures program to expand and to modernize its paper machine
clothing capacity.
The shareholders voted in 1987 to again
make Albany International a public company. Class A stock was offered
to the public in September 1987 on NASDAQ, and in 1988, the Company again listed
on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AIN.
