Jeld-Wen Settlement, Funded Mostly by Onex Corp., Gets Court Nod

Jeld-Wen Holdings Corp. put the last of its price-fixing cases behind it Wednesday, when a federal judge signed off on a $13.5 million settlement of investor litigation.

Judge Richard G. Andrews granted final approval to the agreement, which resolves shareholder derivative claims facing Jeld-Wen’s leaders in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, where they were accused of turning a blind eye to its costly antitrust violations.

The pact calls for payments of $11.5 million from Onex Corp.—Jeld-Wen’s former private equity parent, which exited its stake in August 2021—and $2 million from the doormaker’s insurers. It also hands $3 million in legal fees to counsel for the investors leading the case.

The deal comes more than a year after a federal judge in Virginia signed off on Jeld-Wen’s previous shareholder settlement, a $40 million deal in November 2021 that ended securities fraud litigation against the company and Onex, which paid $500,000 of the amount at the time.

Jeld-Wen and Masonite Corp., another leading doormaker, previously split an $81 million settlement resolving antitrust class actions over their alleged scheme to raise “interior molded door” prices nearly in unison for years. The companies allegedly exploited their 85% combined market share.

The consolidated class actions followed an antitrust suit by doormaker Steves & Sons Inc., a 150-year-old family-run business that won a major jury verdict in a case challenging Jeld-Wen’s acquisition of the only independent manufacturer of the paneled “skins” used as door exteriors.

The Steves litigation culminated in a novel ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which became the first federal appeals court to unwind a merger at the request of a rival rather than a regulator. Divestiture-related proceedings appear to be nearing their conclusion.

The Jeld-Wen investors are represented by Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, Levi & Korsinsky LLP, and Robbins LLP. The company and its leadership are represented by Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Onex is represented by Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

The case is In re Jeld-Wen Holding Inc. Deriv. Litig., D. Del., No. 21-cv-135, 12/20/22.